Category Archives: Digital tools and tips

tools, apps and tips for multimedia story production, distribution and presentation

Sequence & variety shooting in video storytelling: A curation of tips and examples

For video storytelling, you take shots and put them together in sequences. A video sequence is a series of shots on the same subject that are edited together to tell a story. A well-edited video sequence adds visual variety to video storytelling. Continue reading

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Now free: Google Earth Pro for immersive news reports and digital storytelling

Journalists and digital storytellers can take advantage of the video tour feature of Google Earth Pro, which used to cost $399 a year but is now available for free, for an immersive audience experience with locations and places.

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A “multimedia map”: How to use Google Maps with embedded photos and videos

A Google map with embedded photos and videos becomes a “multimedia map” that provides for an interactive presentation tool for use in tourism, event planning, news reporting and other location-based presentations.

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Reverse image search: A Google tool every web editor and researcher should use

By cropping a photo to its most salient part, we can use Google’s “search by image” feature to identify object in a photo that does not have accompanying texts, caption or metadata.

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Journalists should learn to illustrate location elements using Google Maps and Street View

Google Maps and Street View provide easy ways to illustrate “where it is” and “what it looks like” – two  questions a reader may raise but are usually left unanswered.

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Telling a story with Google Earth: Student work in my online mapping course

A participant in my online course Google Mapping for Communicators created a virtual tour using Google Earth, and it provides for a good example of how Google Earth can be used as a storytelling tool.

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Google Camera: A new mobile reporting tool to create your own Street View

Google recently released a camera app, Google Camera, to mobile devices running Android 4.4 KitKat. Photo Sphere, one unique feature of Google Camera, makes it easy to create a custom Street View of a news scene and embed it in … Continue reading

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Google maps tutorial (part 5/5): How to create a free heat map with Google Fusion Tables

Tutorial goals: understand the ideas behind Google Fusion Tables heat maps; create an interactive map showing state-by-state U.S. population, as shown in the sample below. (This post is part five of a 5-part tutorial on creating Fusion Tables intensity map; … Continue reading

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How to embed Getty Images free photos, and, what’s the catch?

The world’s largest photo service, Getty Images, just made many of its stock photos free to use. Here’s a guide on how to find images and embed them in a blog post or web page.

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Location- and time-based storytelling: Interactive maps with embedded photo, video and texts

I tested three free map tools to create custom maps that show multiple dimensions of a story: where (location), when (time), what (photos, videos, articles). The three tools are Meograph, StoryMap JS and Google Maps Engine Lite; the test and … Continue reading

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