Tell Your Story a Different Way

UK newspaper The Guardian’s blogs editor Kevin Anderson met with online journalism students at George Mason University via Skype last week to speak about utilizing the avenues of Web 2.0.

During the Internet conference Anderson informed students of specific tools that can be utilized to enhance storytelling, a common theme of many of the guest speakers throughout the semester.

“The best way to get your story across is through visuals,” said Anderson. “If pictures tell a story better than text than go with that, same with video.”

Anderson, an avid fan of geo-tagging, enlightened students on the usage of geo-tagging with popular photo sharing website Flickr. The gist of the tool is that it enables a physical location tag to hop on with the photo, allowing the user to see where the photo was actually taken.

Geo-tagging has gone a step further, incorporating other web platforms such as Google. When a user Googles an address, specific location, or gets directions the map will show pictures and video of the associated locations.

The concept has evolved off of Adrian Holovaty’s “My Block” website and NBC4’s “Locals Only” web platforms to enable users to hone in on specific areas.

“When I did a tour of the country for the 2008 Election I used geo-tagging to document the trip,” Anderson said.

Tools such as geo-tagging give a different dynamic to stories but there are other alternatives. Popular social networks are now becoming outlets for newsmen.

“I can go on my phone to find out news that hasn’t even hit the wires yet,” explained Anderson. “For example I go on my Twitter feed and find out that a plane has crashed into the Hudson before it is on CNN.”

Anderson has openly embraced these new avenues of storytelling and shares them on his website Corante.com.