By
Carolina Wilson
Once
upon a time, storytelling may have been defined by the use of words, images or
video.
But
by using digital innovations such as games the Interactive Team at Fusion, a television and
digital network, refuses to consider storytelling as creating content for mere
consumption; the innovators want to change the way people interact with
stories.
“As
Fusion says, it’s all about the fusion,” said Mariana Santos, the
interactive and animation director for the team. “We want to fuse some of the
core principals of technology and an editorial and data team with design and
narrative.”
The
interactive team is the newest addition to Fusion, a joint venture between
Univision Communications and the Disney/ABC Television Network. Santos and her
team shared updates on their latest projects during a Hacks/Hackers
Miami Monday meet-up at Fusion’s Doral headquarters.
Santos
is not only changing journalism in Fusion’s newsroom. During her time as a Knight
International Journalism Fellow through the International Center for
Journalists, Santos created Chicas Poderosas, a movement to empower and train women to
be more involved in newsrooms throughout Latin America.
Previously,
Santos worked as a member of the interactive team at London’s The
Guardian. When Fusion offered Santos her current position, she asked to
bring along her team: Miguel
Costa joined as a user experience and user interface designer and Kit Cross as an
interactive developer.
Since
then, the team has been trying “to bring a little bit more of art style,
cinematic and multimedia tradition into online news, making the news more
engaging,” Santos said. Fusion projects have used unique storytelling
techniques, including a project with The New York Times.
The
New York Times Magazine has been excerpting Jake Halpern’s new book “Bad Paper: Chasing Debt From Wall Street to the
Underworld.” In a collaboration with the magazine, Fusion’s team designed “Bad Paper: The Debtor
Game,” a digital game/platform that allows users to better understand debt.
Santos
said Fusion is a “startup environment.” So when considering whether or not to
take on a project, such as “Bad Paper,” the team considers several variables.
“One
of the things I really need to be convinced about is about how many people is
this project going to touch. It has to be something that has social traction
because you need the viewership,” said Daniela Stepensky,
Fusion’s head of product.
For
Santos, a project is worth pursuing if “the data is complete and interesting
and tells you something that you otherwise wouldn’t know.”
According
to Hacks/Hackers Miami co-founder Dan Grech, Miami has much to learn from the interactive
team’s creativity.
“Fusion
is bringing the most extraordinary international talent to Miami. The impact of
Fusion is going to be so much bigger than just what you do for that website and
that media organization,” Grech said as he addressed the interactive team.
“You’re going to change journalism in Miami.”
This
post originally appeared on the Knight Foundation blog and is
published on IJNet with permission.
Carolina Wilson is a
Miami-based freelance writer.
Main
Image: Pictured are interactive developer Cross, interactive and animation
director Santos, infographic artist Victor Abarca, film editor intern Santiago
Raphael, UX&UI designer Costa, editorial cartoonist Andre Dubbin, art
director Ken Hernandez and infographic animator Simon Ducroquet.
Source: Fusion. Image of Mariana
Santos by Carolina Wilson.
No comments:
Post a Comment