Around 1 p.m. on Monday, I clicked on mediastorm.org for the first time.  I don’t remember how I came across the link or why I clicked on it, but within seconds a pile of drool pooled on the desk below me. Media Storm is a space for journalists to publish stories using still photography, audio, video and voice. The site’s design is minimal, and the content of the pieces speak for themselves, literally, because they are told through the voice of the journalist’s subject.

I watched the first half of “The Marlboro Marine,” by Luis Sinco before lunch. By the end of Monday proper, I had watched videos chronicling life after the Rwandan Genocide, a Fifth Avenue apartment rife with young addicts, black market wildlife trade, people living with AIDS in Africa, American soldiers never coming home from Iraq and life in Cuba in 1976. Each story was compelling and moving, and taught me something I hadn’t known before I watched it.

Almost immediately, I started about thinking about what makes a good story, and what in particular made these stories great. Leafing through On Writing Well, it didn’t take long for William K. Zinsser to say exactly what I was feeling during my Media Storm haze:

“The nonfiction writer’s rare privilege is to have the whole wonderful world of people to write about. When you get people talking, handle what they say as you would handle a valuable gift.”

—Wendy Joan

Ps. Tomorrow the Eat Media Team is meeting to discuss, among other things, stories that succeed despite weak or no assistance from visuals (so “The Marlboro Marine” is out).

My pick

Jonathan’s pick

If you were coming to our meeting tomorrow, what story would you bring?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Content Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.