The Five ‘I’s”

Background: The five ‘I’s of digital storytelling are interactivity, involvement, immediacy, integration, and in-depth. A student from my university is killed on the interstate as he returns from school after the Thanksgiving holiday. A tractor trailer was involved in the crash just a few miles before the exit that leads to my school. The stretch of highway that runs through the area has become increasingly dangerous, with six fatalities so far this year, five of which involve trucks. Traffic has doubled in twenty years. And while the road was designed to carry 15 percent of truck traffic, 40 percent of the vehicles that travel the two-lane highway today are trucks. How would I as a reporter, use the five concepts based on the two following scenarios?

scenario A: Facing a tight deadline with limited resources.

I would have to cover the current accident very quickly. With my pen, notepad, and tape recorder, I would interview police officials and eye witnesses at the scene. With my digital camera, I would take pictures of the accident if I am permitted. The story would have to be written in an inverted pyramid style with the most important information at the top about the accident, and near the end I would reference the other fatalities and the increasing truck traffic problem. The pictures that I took would accompany the story as well as an interactive map of the area where the accident happened. This would cover at lest two of the concepts, which are interactivity and immediacy.

scenario B: Flexible time frame with artists, programmers, and multimedia journalists.

With more time, I would write a narrative story in place of the shorter article. I would tell it from the student’s parent’s perspective, which would give the story a humanistic approach. Within the story, I would include the city council’s involement in the issue, because I know that they should have a stake. The Texas Department of Transportation need to be heard as well. If there are organizations involved, their perspective as well as their work would be included.

For other elements, an interactive timeline would be put together. This would include early pictures of the interstate from 20 years ago, up to the the current time. Within the timeline, the individual stories and voices of the victim’s loved ones would be included. Readers could view videos of them telling the victim’s stories. Podcasts of the city council meetings where traffic issues are being discussed can be posted and uploaded periodically on the website.  Blogs from experts in the traffic business can run along the bottom or the side of the website. A discussion forum will also be included for more reader interactivty and involvement. A traffic camera of the area can be posted on the site as well. For example:

	These images may be used to determine the current direction of the camera:
	North South East West
IH 35E @ Tollway Image Acquired Thu, Feb 28, 11:48 am This image is more than 15 minutes old.
The latest available snapshot from this camera will automatically be retrieved every 8-10 minutes.