Multimedia
In addition to doing multimedia for my own stories, I also often do it for others’ as well. Oftentimes, this requires me to do additional research to what the author has already done, but more often than not, the time commitment is worth it in the end. From infographics to maps, multimedia has the ability to add engagement and accessibility to any story. I take care to ensure that the pieces I create are relevant to the story without directly repeating information already included.
Presenting about multimedia
Part of my job is not only creating multimedia but also teaching others how to do the same. At the beginning of the year, I gave a presentation to the class on different types of multimedia and what stories they best fit with. The slideshow was originally created by a previous Digital Editor-in-Chief but I changed some things and added bits of knowledge I’ve gained over the years. My main goal with this was to show the rest of the staff how accessible creating multimedia can be and the importance of the purpose it serves in storytelling.
Classic City Championship timeline
I made this timeline for our “Classic City Championship" preview package for my school’s varsity football team’s game against our crosstown rival. I was lucky enough that someone had done a previous iteration of it a few years prior and when making my own, fact-checked those dates with MaxPreps before adding the years since. I also went through my publication’s Flickr page and website to find photos from as many games as I could to add further engagement.
Faces of the glory years graphic
*Click on the photos to learn more about each person.
Other than doing several rounds of edits and designing the final product, the contents of this piece, a graphic with five notable figures from my school’s last football team to win a championship, the contents of this piece were wholly up to the writer. However, designing this pushed me out of my comfort zone in terms of multimedia. I had originally been planning to make this into a slideshow on Canva and give a slide to each person, but ultimately realized I could make it a lot more engaging with Genially by giving viewers the experience of clicking through each of the people. I also figured out how to animate the parent slide to mimic that of the overall package.
Fast fashion graphics
I made this for an editorial another staff member had written about the harmful effects of fast fashion. She had included her research on the topic in her document, so I decided to turn some of it into a visual element to complement the story. However, I tried to keep the amount of text on each page to maximize engagement, especially since it wasn’t meant to be a replica of the information presented in her story.
Conservation and Education timeline
Making this timeline took quite a bit of research, especially since I wasn’t the one who had written the story and therefore wasn’t as informed on the organization going in. I used a mix of past press releases the land trust had put out as well as articles local news organizations had done on them throughout the years. I then used KnightLab to make the timeline and chose to make the background green to go with the overall nature themes.
Gun legislation map
This map was part of a larger feature story then-Managing Editor Janie Ripps and Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer had written about gun legislation in Georgia. While the story was state-focused, I wanted to give a national perspective as well and how Georgia’s gun safety compares to others’ in the country. I was able to find the data’s source, a nonprofit gun advocacy organization through research Ripps and Meyer had done for the story, and from there, used flourish.studio to compile it all into one map. I also figured out how to make the exact score appear upon hovering to add further interactivity.