Digital storytelling involves digital media, mainly the Internet, allowing users to gain a deeper understanding of a story through the use of creative and often interactive graphics that complement the written text.
Emily Nussbaum’s article reports that on Election Day 2008, The New York Times created Word Train, an interactive feature which asked users to pick a word that described their state of mind and to identify their political party. The resulting lists of adjectives were colored red and blue and displayed in varying font sizes; the larger the word, the larger the number of people who reported feeling that way. This feature told the story of the public’s feelings about the election and the candidates in a digital form. In 2006, the Times created a “database-driven, outward facing application” called Casualties of War. That application included a picture of a soldier made up of smaller pictures of those who died in Iraq, a data tab with multiple search options, and narrative stories. The story of the 3,000 soldiers killed was easily brought close to home by this digital representation. By clicking the links above, you can view these unique applications.
By including interactive features, journalists allow users to experience stories in their own way because the information is presented in multiple formats. In addition, digital storytelling devices can hold the attention of a user for a longer period of time. Instead of simply reading text, the user can click through multiple levels of information and choose what they are interested in, as opposed to moving on to another story if their attention is not piqued in the first paragraph.
Check out: Nussbaum, Emily. “The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady.” http://nymag.com/news/features/all-new/53344/
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