The WSJ approach to interactive video

Journalism.co.uk’s Sarah Marshall spoke to Neal Mann, multimedia innovations editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Jarrard Cole, a multimedia producer, about why they decided to take a unique approach in interactive storytelling.

Their latest video allows users to click and explore different aspects of the story, such as related graphics, articles and videos.

Marshall writes, “Mann’s view is that ‘traditional TV-style methods’ do not always act as good explainers.

“He therefore started to think about doing the piece from a first-person perspective ‘and using interactivity as a way to allow the reader to engage further and get more background.’

“One of the big challenges for Mann, Cole and the reporters involved was to distill the story and explain the key facts and to point people to where they could find out more. The multilayered approach to storytelling allowed them to do this.

“‘The interactivity adds another layer,’ Mann said. ‘And that was really quite exciting because in news, and particularly in news video, we are normally condensing incredibly complex issues into very short periods of time. What interactivity allows us to do is to really expand on that and allow the viewer to expand on areas where they may need some extra background detail.'”

Read more here.