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"Earlier this month, a colleague sent me this piece about LeBron James from Grantland. The Grantland piece is a great example of: using data to tell a story converting complex numbers into digestible infographics drawing visuals from an interview, via animated GIFs the expanding array of people engaged in producing journalism (the author is a cartographer and geography professor) The piece clearly demonstrates the vast array of storytelling opportunities digital media present to us. But it illustrates something else to me: the tremendous expectations we have of journalism students and educators to keep up with these skills and tools."

"Serial's moment came on the heels of other successful audio moments. A couple of years earlier, a little podcast about design, "99% Invisible," became the most funded journalism Kickstarter ever. The resurgence has given a bounce to everything that radio now means: podcasts, NPR, crowdfunding and non-traditional storytelling delivered in non-traditional ways. It's in that last camp where I think journalism professors can be more committed and daring to the benefit of three key groups: themselves, their students and audiences beyond their classrooms. I know because as I continue to try and figure this out, my students' stories are getting aired throughout the U.S."

"I teach university courses about online journalism and the changing ways we use technologies for communication. I love seeing multimedia used well to tell journalism stories."

For those of you thinking about going into journalism: "I'm in a minority of reporters and editors who are genuinely excited to be working at this moment in history and not in the past. Again and again, I found myself playing the role of cheerleader, trying to convince tired and broke journalists to get excited about the future of media. Here's the case I've been trying to make:"

"Imagine an online environment for learning the art and craft of multimedia journalism, a place for media consumers to become media producers. We think this goal realizable because … we're doing it. In the Transom Online Workshop (TOW) a bunch of wanna-be producers come together as a group on Facebook, where a couple of instructors lead them through four basic exercises that require the students learn to use the tools and software involved in photo journalism, radio, and video production. It's not easy, but they figure it out, with help from each other. It's a prototype and we've made some mistakes, learned a lot. This is where we are now, starting the second beta test (Knight Prototype Fund-ed). We designed the workshops so people could quickly become better storytellers, and so we, the designers, could observe the way someone acquires a creative skill, such as storytelling."

"Dr.  Mu Lin is a digital journalism professional and educator in New Jersey, United States. MulinBlog is a place for Dr. Lin to share his research and thoughts about digital/multimedia journalism with students, instructors and media professionals."

"Need to brush-up on your digital journalism skills? You might want to check-out some free or low-cost, online courses being offered within the next few months."

Writing is low on the priority list in our online journalism classes, not because I want it to be, but because we've got limited time to focus on other things. During two-hour classes, students create individual or group websites and learn how to operate online content management systems. They produce audio slideshows, podcasts and videos. They join online communities or create their own. They gather raw data and use it to create online visualizations. They tinker with HTML and CSS, and dissect their website's analytics, among many other tasks. By the end of term, students will produce a body of multimedia journalism work and become active participants in an online network throughout which they can disseminate their work. Students complete many of our projects without writing a piece of text longer than an average tweet, which can be a major letdown for budding wordsmiths.

"Programs around the country are encouraging self-expression, critical-thinking skills, and collaborative learning through digital-media production. Learning to research and write scripts, hone interviewing techniques, and edit footage are just some of the skills students develop during the creative process-a process that touches on multiple academic subjects and builds both self-esteem and confidence-traits shown to lead to better grades."

". Vocativ, an international-focused news startup that curates eyewitness and citizen journalism, released an easy how-to video on their blog that will help even the shakiest of shooters to get good footage out of their next breaking story. This is the first in the Vocativ Video School series, which focuses on video news gathering techniques and styles"

Great article on multimedia storytelling using examples and articles and studies for support. "The Internet has raised concerns that digital media will spell doom for the narrative, replaced by constant bursts of information lacking any context and a flood of raw video and data. Younger people in particular are said to lack the attention span for reading in-depth stories and are supposedly turned off by long and complex narratives. Rather than undermining the traditional narrative, the Internet is an opportunity to experiment with multi-dimensional storytelling and new narrative approaches that provide context and depth and also are more compelling and engaging. So instead of a single linear narrative, a story can be broken up into a series of narratives organized as topical subsections that people can explore according to their own interests."

"Fortunately, the advent and ease of video making can turn anyone with any kind of camera device into a video producer, and I love this fact! But what I love even more, are the plethora of video production websites and tutorials that are available to help us as advisers."

"The Futuro Media Group is an independent non-profit media organization dedicated to producing multimedia journalism that explores and gives critical voice to the diversity of the American experience."

Great site that explains the steps in creating a multimedia story.

"This morning's Washington Post print edition carried a story built out of an annotated Facebook feed. The piece was posted to washingtonpost.com last night with the title "A Facebook story: A mother's joy and a family's sorrow." While I'd seen the Post and other papers structure stories around Twitter and Tumblr feeds, and Slate's mock presidential feed has had a long run, I had yet to see a reported piece told via Facebook status updates. I spoke with the story's editor, Marc Fisher, this morning about the project. Here are excerpts from our conversation:

"Such misconceptions about fair use are all too common - and many journalists fear delving into fair use's complexities, just wanting to know enough to keep from getting sued. Today, American University Center of Social Media is releasing a new set of tools that seek to help demystify fair use for journalists - and to help publishers see how this doctrine actually can help online reporting instead of hampering it."

Not all stories make good multimedia stories. The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), someone who can give some pithy quotes for video or audio, and/or strong emotions for still photos and audio. Most multimedia stories require that the reporter go into the field to report the story face-to-face with sources, rather than doing a story entirely by telephone.