Innovation in Focus
Innovation in Focus is a regular series exploring emerging technology and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We will interview experts, test tools and provide our findings on a different topic each month.
Whether you’re a one-man band or a large metro, this series will help you take the next step in innovative journalism.
Make your newsroom’s social media more accessible
Focusing on accessibility is a great way for newsrooms to make content available to a larger audience. The content will be more easily consumed when you put in the effort to make it accessible to everyone.
Free tools for interactive digital storytelling
Interactive maps and data visualizations are great visuals to add to any online news package. These can be created using code, but there are also many online tools that your newsroom can use to improve digital storytelling for very little or no cost.
How to plan, report and produce a serialized podcast
A serialized podcast is a series of podcast episodes that connect with one another to tell a story. If your newsroom wants to try producing a serialized podcast, here are three tips on how to do just that from what Regan Mertz has learned so far.
Standardizing your brand on social media
At WHAS11 in Louisville, standardizing the look and feel of social media accounts, specifically Instagram and YouTube, is at the top of the summer projects list.
Augmented video editing: Tips and tricks
For Innovation in Focus this month, we partnered with mid-Missouri’s NBC affiliate KOMU-TV 8 to incorporate augmented video editing, combining animation with video footage, into a news piece.
Social media policies are not the real issue
Gabe Schneider, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sisi Wei and Karen K. Ho in a discussion around how newsrooms can work to become anti-racist starting with their social media policies and how they enforce them. Reporters of color being punished and fired for tweets is a symptom of the larger problem that newsrooms need to tackle head on. … Continued
Descript, overdub: Q&A with Tamar Charney
Innovation in Focus is a series exploring emerging technology and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We interview experts, test tools and provide our findings on a different topic each month. For Innovation in Focus this month I spoke with Tamar Charney, managing director for personalization and curation at NPR, about the ethics of redubbing, … Continued
Descript video: Tips and tricks
Innovation in Focus is a series exploring emerging technology and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We interview experts, test tools and provide our findings on a different topic each month. This month I tested Descript’s new video editing software to create this video about a local maker and his business. Here are five tips … Continued
Narrated article: Tips and tricks
This month for Innovation in Focus, we tested various tools and platforms to provide narration for articles to make them more accessible to people with disabilities. Here are a few tips from our experiments with these tools. 1. Pace yourself Listening to information is a different experience from reading it. You want to speak at … Continued
Narrated article: Winter tips to stay safe and warm
This month for Innovation in Focus we tested various tools and platforms to provide narration for articles to make them more accessible. Listen to this article narrated: https://soundcloud.com/pili-swanson/narrated-article Here are some tips to staying healthy, safe and warm this winter season as the temperatures begin to drop. The CDC has COVID-19 tips for holiday gatherings, … Continued