#Tip of the day for journalists: Digital projects to inspire multimedia storytelling

New York Times’s Snowfall package

On the 10,000 Words blog Lauren Rabaino puts a spotlight on ten different examples of “innovative storytelling formats”, prompted by the New York Times Snowfall package, which could inspire others considering similar projects.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – social media resources for Olympics reporting

On the 10,000 Words blog Elana Zak rounds up seven social media resources which journalists can make use of when reporting on the Olympics in London this year. This includes the recently launched Explore London 2012 Facebook page, as well as the “Olympic Athletes Hub” and the official London 2012 Twitter accounts.

See the full list of resources here.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – social media advice from Newsweek and The Daily Beast

The 10,000 Words blog has an interview with Brian Ries, social media editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Elana Zak asked him: “What are the must-have skills that someone aspiring to be a social media editor needs?”.

Ries shares his experience and advice.

The most important thing is to be aware of the various tools that are out there and to be able to apply them to the needs of the newsroom and maybe the company at large.

A lot of people get obsessed with the idea that social media editors are running the Twitter account or updating the Facebook page. And that is a large part of it, for sure, at some companies more than others. But it’s also about strategising and thinking how can I take the news product as it has always existed, whether it’s in print or on TV or online, and fracture it into a million little pieces and convert it into something that makes sense on these new platforms, these new tools, these new networks that are sprouting up.

The full Q&A is at this link.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – create infographics with Easel.ly

10,000 Words recently blogged about using infographics platform Easel.ly, which is currently in beta, to create visual stories via “drag-n-drop templates”, based around customisable themes.

According to 10,000 Words:

For newsrooms, this site poses huge opportunity in terms of shareability of information across social media

Read the 10,000 Words post here.

Here is a video from Easel.ly demonstrating how it works:

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – five free online portfolio sites

Elana Zak has blogged on 10,000 Words giving five free online portfolio sites journalists.

She recommends: WordPress, Cuttings.me (which we have written about previously), Pressfolios, Flavors and About.me.

The post describing each of the five portfolio options is at this link.

Here is a post we published last year on five great journalist portfolios.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – who journalists should follow on Twitter

The 10,000 Words blog has a post recommending who journalists should follow on Twitter.

It is worth a look at the recommendations but the post is probably of most use for those just starting out in using Twitter as a journalist.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – building user responses into stories

Over on the 10,000 Words blog Lauren Rabaino gives an interesting overview of the different ways the New York Times has used responses from its online users in relation to news into their own stories, often in very visual ways.

The post demonstrates how this sort of material can be used by news outlets to illustrate the attitudes, opinions and emotions of their audience, and how the NYT, as one example, has achieved this.

See the 10,000 Words post here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

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App of the week for journalists: Banjo, for finding the location of breaking news

App of the week: Banjo

Phones: iPhone, Android

Cost: Free

What is it? A location-based social networking app. The app shows you a map of where Facebook and Twitter users are located.

How is it of use to journalists? The 10,000 Words blog flagged this app up as one that is useful for journalists.

The 10,000 Words blog explains how Andy Stettler from the Lansdale Reporter used Banjo to find out the scene of a breaking news story:

Stettler noticed a bunch of people had checked in at the mall. He was able to tweet questions to some of them and quickly connected with a man on site who clarified that the entire mall was not being evacuated. Stettler got this fact first through social media — before the police or mall officials would even return a reporter’s call. His paper was able to provide crucial information — that only part of the mall was being evacuated — before their competitors were.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – kit checklist for mobile reporting

The 10,000 Words blog has produced a list of the key parts of a journalist’s “mobile reporting kit”, based on the advice of social media editor at New York Daily News, Anjali Mullany.

Read the post here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

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Tool of the week for journalists – ProPublica’s TimelineSetter

Tool of the week: ProPublica’s TimelineSetter

What is it? A tool for creating beautiful interactive timelines.

How is it of use to journalists? Having spent time developing a timeline tool, US investigative journalism news site ProPublica has made the code available for others to use, enabling journalists to build interactive timelines from a spreadsheet.

ProPublica’s timeline on how one blast affected five soldiers is a clear demonstration as to just how effective the tool can be in online storytelling.

The LA Times and Chicago Tribune are among those who have utilised the open source software since it was made public in April 2011.

TimelineSetter is not for the technology shy, however. Non-coders should not let this introduction to the tool put them off and should instead try watching the two videos embedded below and test out the technology.

Let us know at @journalismnews if you build and publish a timeline using ProPublica’s code.

If you want to create a timeline but avoid coding, try Dipity, a previous Journalism.co.uk tool of the week.

Hat tip: 10,000 Words

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