By
Margaret Looney
You don't have to be a programming
prodigy to add interactivity to your content.
Steven
King, professor of multimedia journalism at UNC Chapel Hill and
former video editor for The Washington Post, showcased free and inexpensive tools for
interactive storytelling at the recent Journalism Interactive (J/i)
conference, a gathering of journalism educators and professionals.
IJNet attended King's session and
picked these four tools to highlight for adding visual elements on the cheap to
your next news story or project.
With Infogr.am, you can create
embeddable infographics for free from pre-made templates. You can add a Vimeo
or YouTube video, text, maps, charts (there are about 30 to choose from) or an
image. You can upload a spreadsheet of data, or input the data directly into
Infogr.am's built-in spreadsheet.
You can embed it or share it on social media,
or with the pro version you can download it as a PNG or PDF file. The company
also has an infographic creator for video on the way.
Timeglider is a timeline-building tool
that suits projects with many data points. The tool will suit complex projects
with a lot of small facts over a long period of time. Here's an example of a
timeline which tracks all the events of the Plame Affair. If you're looking for something
more visually oriented and streamlined, you can check out Timeline.js.
Timelines are also shareable and embeddable.
One of the simplest ways out there to
build a map is with the new Google Maps Maker, which is the first sign that a
larger Google Maps suite is coming, according to King. You can place plot points
and hyperlink them to any additional info. You can also add roads, outlines of
buildings and natural features. As long as the map is public, you can embed it
on a different site. This tool is perfect for a simple map with a few data
points, but if you have a large data set, give Batch
Geo a try.
ThingLink is a highly visual tool that
lets you link images with web content, adding context with sound, text, social
media profiles, other images and more. You'll drop a pin on a static image and
when you hover over it, the type of media you linked to it will pop up. You can
then embed your interactive image or share it on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or
via email. Here's a ThingLink image of the Mars Rover. It's not one of
the newest tools, but its simplicity and easy payoff have kept it relevant.
Check out all of King's suggestions here.
IJNet Editorial Assistant Margaret
Looney writes about the latest media trends, reporting tools and journalism
resources.
Source: Ijnet.org
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