Traditional text pieces have names like "Curtain raiser", "profile", "feature". How can we classify digital stories? Surely there's some overlap but what are common buckets that can help us understand the scope and goals of digital stories?
Telling a story visually, not necessarily by adding more data, but by adding a visual treatment to a story, making it more easily digestible.
Could also be called a visual explainer (perhaps?).
- Murdoch’s Circle: The Growing News International Scandal - ProPublica
- A Scorecard for This Summer's Bank Scandals - ProPublica
- A Really Small Slice of Americans Get to Decide Who Will Rule the Senate — Bloomberg
- How Obama Drone Deaths Stack Up - ProPublica
- Here’s how Michigan got Canada to pay for their new bridge—but might turn it down, anyway - Quartz
"Contextualizer" needs a better ring to it. A visualization or collection of information that helps readers understand the long tail of an on-going story in the news cycle or helps give context to a current event by showing something (scope, importance etc) about similar historical events.
- Timeline: How Obama Compares to Bush on Torture, Surveillance and Detention — ProPublica
- Ebola tracker — Ajam
- From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking — ProPublica
- The Politicization of the Debt Ceiling — Ajam
- The U.S.’s Odds of Beating Belgium And Every Other World Cup Opponent — 538
- Where police forces don't resemble the community — Washington Post
Readers input information about themselves to see how they compare. Could also include a "far" view of national stats and a "near" / comparison view to give a larger context to your numbers.
Can either be an interface on top of a database with graphs / charts / other visual displays of information or an examination of a single or just a few numbers.
- The Opportunity Gap: Is your state providing equal access to education — ProPublica
- Crime in your neighborhood — Chicago Tribune
- Where would Syria's 9.5 million refugees fit — Ajam (also listed as story visualization)
A born-digital story uses elements of multimedia, web design, striking photography or a social component in addition to text.
- Glitter in the dark: Bat for Lashes Profile — Pitchfork
- Coming Out — NY Times
- Mauritania: Slavery's Last Stronghold — CNN
- Ghost Factories: Poison in the Ground — USA Today
Using data to present an alternate perception of an event / phenomenon.
- Bear71 — National Film Board of Canada
- How riot rumours spread on Twitter — Guardian
- Rupert Murdoch: How Twitter tracked the MPs' questions - and the pie — Guardian
Often investigative in nature, a project that engages readers to help collect data / verify information.
- MP Expenses — Guardian
- Message Machine — ProPublica
- Privately Owned Public Spaces — WNYC / The New York World
- I Paid a Bribe — Janaagraha
- Free the Files — ProPublica
