Digital Storytelling event will rethink formats for digital journalism

A group of innovative, multimedia journalists will host a free conference on Friday, focusing on new ways to tell stories online.

Digital Storytelling '10, which is organised by Not on the Wires, the journalists' collaborative responsible for The Berlin Project, will feature case studies from digital journalists, online communications professionals and technology companies, as well as the opportunity for delegates to try out the techniques discussed.

Despite ongoing discussions of the transition from traditional news media to online platforms, changes to the format of journalism and storytelling for digital outlets and across multiple platforms has not properly been addressed, freelance journalist and conference host Alex Wood told Journalism.co.uk.

"Against a background of crises in our industry, there are a lot of positive things going and people just quietly getting on with things, some of which are innovative and have the potential to make money from online," he said.

Friday's conference is meant to be positive - there will be no moaning, according to Wood - and the day will draw on examples from lesser known organisations and journalists pioneering new storytelling techniques. Headline sponsor for the day is 'word of mouth' agency 1000heads.

Speakers at the one-day event at London's Southbank University will include former BBC journalist Benjamin Chesterton from multimedia production company duckrabbit, Nikola Ivanovski from pro-am journalism organisation Demotix, and representatives of SojournPosse, a creative collective of journalists. Conference sponsor Blinked.tv will also be showcasing new mobile technology for journalists at the event.

The event sessions, which start at 1pm, will end with a panel discussion featuring The Berlin Project team and discussing their multimedia work and collaboration with Reuters.

An evening networking session will double up with Adam Westbrook's London Future of News Group, which was set up at the end of 2009.

Journalism.co.uk will be at Digital Storytelling and details of how to follow the event and follow the #ds10 tag will be posted later this week. For more information visit the Digital Storytelling site.

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