Storytelling Beyond Words: New Forms of Journalism
We are in the midst of a digital revolution, and yet journalistic storytelling remains trapped in the Stone Age. We have all sorts of digital tools at our disposal -- video, social media, interactive graphics, etc. -- and still our stories are boring. Our panel will help you think in new ways about storytelling forms. Instead of sending users to a separate link for a video, why not embed video into the story at strategic points? Instead of writing long articles analyzing the accuracy of a politician's statements, why not invent a meter that allows the audience to quickly see that for themselves? We'll offer examples of how journalists harness digital tools to reinvent storytelling in ways that delight audiences, elucidate complex issues, improve communities and strengthen democracy. This panel is for geeks who care about storytelling; it's for storytellers who care about digital tools; and it's for anyone who cares about the future of journalism.
Presenters
Aron Pilhofer is editor of Interactive News at The New York Times, overseeing a news-focused team of journalist/developers who build dynamic, data-driven applications to enhance The Times' reporting online.
He is also co-founder of DocumentCloud, a project designed to improve journalism by making source documents easier find, search, analyze and share online. DocumentCloud was awarded a $719,000 grant by the Knight Foundation in 2009.
He is also founder of Hacks & Hackers, an organization designed to bring journalists and technologists together. Founded in 2009, the group now has 18 chapters and more than 2,400 members in four countries.
Aron joined The Times in 2005 as a projects editor on the paper's newly expanded computer-assisted reporting team, where he specialized in stories related to money, politics and influence for the politics desk and Washington bureau.
Prior to joining The Times, Pilhofer was database editor at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, where he began an ongoing project in 2002 to track a new form of political non-profit organization, so-called 527 groups. The Center's reporting was among the first to highlight the gaping hole in federal campaign finance regulations, which allows these groups to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into elections nationwide.
Before working at the Center, Pilhofer was on the national training staff of Investigative Reporters and Editors and worked for a number of years as a statehouse and projects reporter for Gannett newspapers in New Jersey and Delaware.
Bill Adair is the creator and editor of PolitiFact.com, which won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2009. He also serves as the Washington Bureau Chief for the Tampa Bay Times, formerly the St. Petersburg Times, and is an adjunct faculty member at the Poynter Institute.
He has worked in Washington since 1997 and has covered Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, national politics and aviation safety. Adair is the author of "The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash Investigation," a behind-the-scenes account of how the National Transportation Safety Board solved one of the biggest mysteries in aviation. He is the winner of the Everett Dirksen Award for Distinguished Coverage of Congress, the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award and the Manship Prize. He lives in Arlington, Va. with his wife and three children.
Jim Brady is the Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media, which operates the Journal Register Company and MediaNews Group, and oversees the editorial strategy of its 75 daily newspapers and its hundreds of non-daily publications and digital sites. Brady is also overseeing the launch of Project Thunderdome, which will redefine how DFM produces journalism for the digital age by creating a centralized team that produces high-quality non-local journalism for all DFM properties on all platforms.
Before joining DFM, Brady served as general manager of TBD, a new local news operation dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the Washington, D.C. region that combines the values of traditional journalism and the power of citizen journalism. Brady joined TBD after more than four years as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, where he led the site to numerous awards and accolades.
As general manager of TBD, Brady was responsible for the business operations and editorial oversight of both TBD.com and TBD TV, a 24-hour local cable news station. On both platforms, TBD’s original journalism is supplemented with strong partnerships with other local news organizations and more than 175 area bloggers. TBD has quickly gained a reputation for innovative ways of covering local news, and gained high marks for its commitment to social media and engaging with its community in meaningful ways. TBD has also displayed a strong commitment to mobile, with highly regarded applications for the iPhone and Droid.
During Brady’s tenure as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, the site won a national Emmy award for its Hurricane Katrina coverage, a Peabody Award for its “Being a Black Man” series, an Editor & Publisher award for Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Web Site, two Digital Edge awards for Best Overall News Site, a Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, two Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards, four Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Non-Broadcast Affiliated Web Site, and more than 100 White House News Photographers video awards. Brady also served as sports editor and assistant managing editor for news at washingtonpost.com from 1995 to 1999.
In between his stints at washingtonpost.com, Brady spent more than four years at America Online, serving as Group Programming Director, News & Sports; Executive Director, Editorial Operations; and Vice President, Production & Operations. During his time at AOL, Brady was in charge of the service’s coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential election.
Brady earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism from The American University in 1989.
Born in Queens, N.Y. and raised in Huntington, N.Y., Brady now lives with his wife, Joan, in Great Falls, Va.
Stephen Buckley is the Dean of Faculty at The Poynter Institute. Prior to joining Poynter, he was the digital publisher at the St. Petersburg Times, where he worked from 2001-2009. Before moving into that position, Buckley served in a variety of roles at the Times—managing editor, assistant managing editor/world, national reporter, and (for several months) city editor. Before coming to the Times, he worked for The Washington Post for 12 years as a Metro reporter and a foreign correspondent. He has been a Pulitzer Prize juror and a judge for the American Society of News Editors Writing Awards. In 2002, he won the Paul Hansell Distinguished Journalism Award from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, for the best body of work among the state’s reporters in 2001. Buckley is married with two children.
Sunday, March 11
