WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA
WEB
Much of my multimedia story inspiration has been drawn from professional publications. In order to inspire our staff to thoughtfully use multimedia tools when they constructed multimedia packages, we created a sheet where staff writers can choose what tools they want to use for each story and how those tools will enhance their stories.
I drew inspiration from Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York — a treasured book that sits above my desk — in order to create this Humans of Cupertino Package. I constructed the package on Wix in order to give it a cleaner, more professional look and emphasize the photos of our sources.
In my story about the evolution of modern rap, I utilized Knightlab tools and a Spotify playlist embed in order to create multiple points of interest for my reader, a lesson that Medill fortified.
I also turned to the power of data journalism to emphasize my stance on college tuition costs in my editorial about the subject. Using data from the Collegeboard, I created an interactive data visualization on Flourish.
SOCIAL MEDIA
During the pandemic, El Estoque’s daily Instagram posts were a source of connection for our community. With themed hashtags and a social media audits system that ensured sources weren’t repeated, our staff was able to post about a significant portion of our school community and place in NSPA for our work.
During the height of the pandemic, catchy hashtags kept our Instagram feed alive.
This year, we’ve returned to using Instagram as a source of visual storytelling. I also wanted to leverage the Instagram Reels feature, so this year, we started posting short clips about Homecoming and our staff profiles, all of which have garnered thousands of views. We also leveraged the Instagram story feature to post breaking news updates about local wildfires and COVID-19.
A combination of posts, reels and live coverage constitute our Instagram coverage now.
Towards the beginning of the year, our staff struggled with publishing quality photos. I believe that each photo we post should be of exceptional quality, so I went over photography basics with our staff. Additionally, I instituted a rigorous photo verification process before photos get posted to social media and our heads team started vetoing photos that did not meet the Instagram quality standard.
When we discussed solutions to the issues we were having with editorials n our heads team meeting, I suggested that the Opinion editors present a mini-lesson the class.
BEFORE
AFTER
Before my photo presentation, photos were blurry, unedited and didn't follow photography basics like the rule of thirds.
After the lesson, our staff became more comfortable with using cameras and editing photos. By also vetoing blurry photos or images without clear subjects, the quality of photos on our Instagram increased substantially. The amount of engagement with our posts and the number of likes followed suit.
We also use our social media as a form of promotion for our online stories. On Twitter and Facebook, staff members frequently promote their stories with captivating short blurbs. For shorter and quicker coverage, staff members generally turn to Snapchat. Our Snapchat is a source of club event and game coverage.
