Foote – Five I’s Blog Assignment
“The “Five I’s” of digital storytelling are: interactivity, involvement, immediacy, integration and in-depth opportunities. A student who attends your university is killed on the interstate as he returns to school after the Thanksgiving holiday. A tractor trailer was involved in the crash just a few miles before the exit that leads to your school. The stretch of highway that runs through the area has become increasingly dangerous, with six fatalities so far this year, five of which involved trucks. Traffic doubled in twenty years. And while the road was designed to carry 15 percent truck traffic, 40 percent of the vehicles that travel the two-lane highway today are trucks.”
In scenario A, where you are working under a tight deadline with limited resources, some of the five I’s are difficult if not impossible to achieve. Getting “In-depth opportunities” and pursuing them involves time, which you won’t have in a breaking news situation.
With regards to immediacy and interactivity, pictures of the crash and photos of those involved can be easily found and thrown on a website. Also, if you were able to get a backpack journalist to the crash site, you can get photos and a Soundslides slide show up on the site very easily. A quick Google Maps location of the crash site can also be posted with the photos. You could also integrate news footage from collaborating TV news stations in a pinch. To involve the readers, you could post a link to a site where they can leave condolences for the deceased. The emphasis in a breaking news situation always has to be accuracy and immediacy, innovation can come later.
Given time and resources, more possibilities open up. You could use Flash to create an interactive timeline of all the crashes on that particular stretch of highway. You could also get audio/video interviews with the mayor of the town, the city manager, the trucking company, and the family of the dead student. One has to be mindful of what interactive elements you add to the story, to maintain the correct level of respect for the dead while at the same time providing your readers with the best information possible.
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