September 7, 2011
On the rainy evening of Tuesday, September 6th, four cutting-edge journalists convened in the Lecture Hall at Columbia Journalism School to discuss creative uses of technology to tell stories in new and innovative ways. Moderated by Emily Bell of the Tow Center, the event was the first All-Class Lecture of the semester and was sponsored by the Tow Center and duPont Awards.
After an introduction by Abi Wright, director of the duPont and Chancellor Awards, Bell introduced Danfung Dennis of Condition ONE. Dennis, who has covered America's foreign wars since 2006, showcased his new documentary, Hell and Back Again, and discussed his work on a new iPad app that promises to give viewers a more immersive experience with video.
"At the core of all this technology is good storytelling," Dennis said.
Chad Stevens of the University of North Carolina and Mediastorm shared the trailer to a new Mediastorm documentary, Intended Consequences, and emphasized the increasing importance of motion graphics and interactive features to get audiences' attention.
"As a teacher I'm constantly telling students to 'humanize, personalize, and realize," Stevens said, explaining that journalists should strive to make their reporting immediate and accessible.
Photo: Rebecca Castillo
Laura Kurgan of Columbia University's Spatial Information Design Lab discussed her work mapping information such as migrant workers' remittances and disadvantaged neighborhoods that produce a disproportionate share of the nation's incarcerated population. She suggested that interactivity and thinking out of the box in terms of choosing data sets to present are important to getting audiences' attention.
The last of the four speakers, Storify co-founder Burt Herman, explained that Storify flexibly delivers content that is embeddable by anyone on any site. This model, he said, allows users to integrate journalism ever more seamlessly into their digital experience.
"We are reinventing storytelling," Herman said.
After each speaker had made a presentation, Emily Bell asked the panel a few questions that kicked off a lively discussion with the audience.
Click here for Burt Herman's Storify account of the event.
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