“Living Galápagos”: A rare species of digital storytelling
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest writer is Jake Batsell, an assistant professor in journalism at Southern Methodist University and faculty adviser to the Daily Mustang. You can read more from Jake on his blog and follow him on Twitter at @jbatsell.
By Jake Batsell
Few of us have experienced the one-of-a-kind wonders of the Galápagos Islands. But if you’re curious and have a half-hour to kill, Pat Davison’s students can take you there.
Once you start exploring, you’ll have a hard time clicking away from “Living Galápagos,” a documentary multimedia project produced last summer by a group of Davison’s photojournalism students at the University of North Carolina.
In my three semesters teaching digital journalism at Southern Methodist University, no multimedia project has inspired more awe and admiration from my students.
As you absorb the site’s vivid images, technical polish and sophisticated storytelling, you can’t help but get fired up about how this new generation of journalists can harness the Web to deliver compelling journalism.
Before departing for the islands, Davison and the students met several times with a coach from a local Web design firm to storyboard the ambitious project, which examines the “battle for balance between man and nature” through dozens of videos, audio slideshows, and panoramic 360-degree photos enhanced with natural sound and interviews.
