Assignment: Prep for Week 13

Find 3 examples of compelling social media posts that tease a story (e.g. on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat). Take screenshots or save links to them so you can discuss in class.

Also, create a social promo for your midterm project — how would you frame the story and what visuals might you use to illustrate it? You can design a promo for any social platform (use the actual platform or Photoshop to mock it up).

Due Wednesday, April 19

Exercise: Timeline or StoryMap

Build an interactive timeline or interactive map with TimelineJS or StoryMap from the Knight Lab and publish your page to GitHub Pages. Try overriding the existing CSS rules to apply your own styles and build out other details on the page (like a headline and other explanatory text).

Use research and reporting material from your final project, though you are not required to implement this exercise into your final project it may be a useful component.

Due Wednesday, April 26.

Critique: Interactivity

Select one of the stories below to critique — focus on the role of interactive components that require the reader to interact with the story.

  1. Spot the Ball
  2. You Draw It: What Got Better or Worse During Obama’s Presidency
  3. The Sound and the Furry
  4. Police Body Cameras: What Do You See?
  5. How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk
  6. Quiz: Can we guess your age and income, based solely on the apps on your phone?

Before next class, submit a critique that generally answers the following questions about each piece (fewer than 300 words).

  • Substance: What story was this project attempting to tell? Was it successful? Was the narrative compelling? What scenes or characters most resonated?
  • Form: What decisions did the authors make about what to show and how to sequence the story? Were they effective? Was the interaction intuitive? Did the experience ask too much of the reader?

Deadline: Submit your critiques on Canvas by midnight on Wednesday, April 26.