LJ Digital: Please stop by UC Irvine this Thursday, April 18th for the literary journalism and history department’s Digital Storytelling: A Symposium! We will be honored with guests from the Atavist, Byliner, Longform.org, and more! The event is free and open to the public and will take place from 11-6:30pm. There will be a variety of talented journalists and writers so please try and make it!
Join the Literary Journalism Program, the Department of History, and the Office of the Campus Writing Coordinator for a ONE-DAY symposium on new developments in digital storytelling.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING: A SYMPOSIUM
THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2013
11 A.M.-6:30 P.M.
UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:
11-12:00 “The Future of Digital Publishing”: A Roundtable
Humanities Instructional Building 137
Moderated and introduced by Kavita Philip (UCI History)
Featuring:
Tom Lutz, Founder and Editor, LA Review of Books; Professor, UC Riverside
Department of Creative Writing
Angilee Shah, journalist, editor, and blogger (angileeshah.com)
Mark Bryant, Editor-in-Chief of Byliner.com
Nancie Clare, Founder and Editor of Noir Magazine (noirmagazine.tumblr.com)
Mike Sager, Writer-at-Large for Esquire and founder of digital publishing imprint The Sager Group (www.thesagergroup.com)
12:30-1:30 PM Master Class on Digital Narratives, Hosted by The Atavist
Humanities Gateway Building 1010
Gray Beltran, Multimedia Producer and Community Editor, The Atavist
Moderated by Erika Hayasaki, UCI English and Literary Journalism
1:30-3:00 Lunch Reception and Display of Student Digital Narrative Projects
Humanities Gateway 1010
3-4:30 PM Live Podcast Interview by Longform of Vanessa Grigoriadis
Humanities Gateway 1030
Interviewers: Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky of Longform.org
4-5 PM Coffee Reception and Display of Student Digital Narratives
Humanities Gateway 1010
5-6:30 PM “Storytelling, Narrative, and Writing in the Digital Age”: A Panel Discussion Moderated by: Barry Siegel and Erika Hayasaki (UCI English and Literary
Journalism)
Humanities Gateway 1030
*Featuring*:
Charles Homans, Editor, The Atavist
Jim Giles, Editor, Matter
Aaron Lammer, Editor, Longform
Mark Bryant, Editor-in-Chief of Byliner.com
PRESS RELEASE: UC IRVINE LITERARY JOURNALISM TO HOST ONE-DAY
SYMPOSIUM ON “DIGITAL STORYTELLING,” 4/18/13 11-6:30 PM
—-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—-
By Erika Hayasaki
In 1946, John Hersey published the 31,000-word narrative nonfiction piece, “Hiroshima,” which filled an entire issue of The New Yorker, and later went on to become a short book. In the decades that followed, dedicating that much print space to a single journalism story in a newspaper or magazine didn’t happen very often, and in recent years, with cutbacks in newspapers and magazines, some feared longform journalism would die altogether.
But a shift toward e-reading over the last three years has led to an unexpected reemergence of the mid-length story — those pieces too long to be articles, too short to be traditional books. In the digital age, the 10,000 to 30,000-word story has staked its place as a viable literary form. These stories are now marketed digitally between 99-cents and $5—longform journalism that fits in your pocket or purse,
designed to be read within a few hours.
This month, the UCI community will discuss, debate and celebrate emerging trends in digital narrative and storytelling, highlighting a cross-disciplinary interest in new media and technology “Digital Storytelling: A Symposium,” hosted by UCI’s Literary Journalism Program, the Department of History, and the Center for Excellence in
Writing and Communication, with additional sponsorship from the Office of the Chancellor, and staff support from the Department of English.
The one-day symposium will take place on Thursday, April 18 on the UCI campus, bringing together local and national figures working in high-profile positions in digital and traditional media and fostering connections between academic and public writers to discuss questions including: Is the novella making a comeback? How do storytelling techniques like the narrative arc and the cliffhanger evolve with these changing formats? Is there a future for the traditional book? How can writers make a living in this new era of publishing? How have mainstream publishers and newspapers embraced or rejected digital formats? What is the difference between a Kindle Single and a Nook Snap? Is an Apple Quick Read as quick as a Kobo
ShortRead? And just how long, or short, are #Longreads?
“Digital Storytelling: A Symposium,” will feature guest speakers including Mark Bryant, the editor-in-chief of Byliner, a San Francisco-based company that launched in April 2011, devoted specifically to longform (or mid-length) journalism and fiction. The company has seen unprecedented success, with one of its nonfiction stories making it to the top of The New York Times bestseller list last year — an impressive feat, since the 20,000-word narrative was competing against full-length traditional books. This year, two of its stories are National Magazine Award finalists.
The event will also feature speakers from The Atavist, a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that has layered music, maps, videos, audio, and animation into its nonfiction narratives. The Atavist will offer a digital storytelling “master class” open to the campus and public. Other guest speakers will include editors from the Los Angeles Review of Books, New York-based Longform.org, Noir (a Los Angeles-based digital publication for crime stories), and Matter, a science and technology based longform journalism organization that raised over $140,000 through Kickstarter. Other panelists include Mike Sager, a bestselling author and award-winning reporter for Esquire magazine who also founded The Sager Group, a
consortium of multi-media artists and writers. There will also be a live Longform podcast interview with National Magazine award winner Vanessa Grigoriadis, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. The UCI symposium will build upon topics discussed last year in a lecture course, “Narratives in a Digital Age,” launched by the school’s Literary Journalism Program. The popular course welcomed 70 tweeting, tumblring, instagramming,
facebooking students who arrived on the first day armed with their devices: about 37% of the class owned I-Pads, Kindles, Nooks or other tablet reading devices, according to an informal survey.
However, 56% still preferred reading on a printed page, while 28% preferred digital, either on a tablet, computer or phone, and 16% liked reading both print and digital. However, most students still valued the paper page — 72% of them believed the future of publishing would be a blend of print and digital, while the rest believed it would be solely digital.
Whatever the future of publishing looks like, one point can’t be ignored: “The new digital venues and publications convincingly demonstrate that long form narrative nonfiction can survive and flourish in the age of the Internet,” said Barry Siegel, Director of the UC Irvine Literary Journalism Program. “ Despite epochal change,
literary journalists still have many places—in fact, more places than ever—where they can tell their story.”
EVENT DETAILS:
APRIL 18, 2013
11 A.M.-6:30 P.M.
UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES: HUMANITIES GATEWAY AND HUMANITIES INSTRUCTIONAL BUILDING
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC—ALL WELCOME
For more information on Digital Storytelling: A Symposium please contact the Assistant Director of Literary Journalism, Patricia Pierson, piersonp@uci.edu, or Assistant Professor of Literary Journalism Erika Hayasaki ehayasak@uci.edu. Special thanks to the Humanities Research Institute.
For Students: a New Multimedia Storytelling Competition
From the multimedia magazine the Atavist. Beginning January 1, 2013, students are invited to participate in the above competition by submitting a long-form, nonfiction story that isn’t just writing — the judges want to see photography, video, narration and illustrations. Whatever’s appropriate and fits into the Atavist’s editorial platform.
There are openings for high school, college and grad students. Enter here, and good luck.
OH. MY. GOD.
LJ Digital: ^^ what I said on my other blog. This is an EXCELLENT opportunity for journalism students interested in the future of media in the digital age. Get your multimedia stories out there, guys!!
I am a story enhancer. As a producer at The Atavist, my job is to take a story and enhance it using the overwhelming number of digital tools I have at my disposal. But just because it’s easy to throw an image, or a piece of video, or a map, or a musical snippet, or an interactive graphic at a story using the Atavist platform, doesn’t mean it will always improve the story. So I try to practice restraint when adding media to a story. Some results are better than others. But the biggest challenge I face is not related to producing a story, but explaining exactly what the finished product is.
A lot of people have been asking me*:
What the heck is an “Enhanced E-Comic?”
Many people are familiar with the term “enhanced e-book,” but our new nonfiction comics work Stowaway is one of the world’s first “enhanced e-comics.”
To be sure, comics have rapidly gone digital, and comics artists and fans were early adopters of the iPad platform, which has enabled some incredible works of comics art. A standout is Operation Ajax, a detailed history of the 1953 Iranian coup. It’s an elaborate production that exists somewhere between comics and animation in a space some people call “motion comics.” It comes with a haunting soundtrack and digital features too numerous to name, and you should definitely download it immediately. (It’s a story you can spend hours with—and it’s also a story that took a large staff several years to produce.)
Our enhanced e-comic, Stowaway includes a soundtrack and behind-the-scenes extras that illuminate the boundaries between journalism and art. The music, sound effects, and video animations elevate it beyond a print comics reading experience and the audio extras allow you to engage with the creators of the piece in a way that would be impossible in a print medium. In this way, Stowaway creates an embedded dialogue about the subjectivity of the comics form (which you could argue is no more subjective than written journalism).
So why not be a part of history, and experience the future of comics journalism?
—Olivia Koski, Senior Producer
*No one has asked me this, actually. But they should.
Check out these fancy pants Atavist guys! So fun! Great work!
Introducing Stowaway, our first nonfiction enhanced e-comic!
Available for iPad/iPhone and on the web for only $2.99!
Joe Sacco and the rise of “longform comics reportage.” (Just a few weeks until our own foray into this exciting new genre!)
With the Atavist design, TED Books will be able to incorporate various multimedia features throughout their written stories.
We’re really looking forward to the next issue of Auto de Fe.
Welcome to The Rondure!
The Rondure is an application designed by a handful of students from Narratives in the Digital Age. They used a Wordpress to display what their multimedia app would do. Similar to the Atavist, The Rondure adds multimedia features to their long form journalism stories. However, these students are emphasizing the publication of international stories. Check out the first story published on the Wordpress written by one of the group members.
Editor-in-Chief: Colleen Humfreville
Journalist Adam Piore writes on the Huffington Post today about “Writing Longform for a Multimedia Platform.”
We recently read and talked to him about his story, “The Accidental Terrorist,” from The Atavist.
Piore writes:
“Most of my former coworkers might not believe me when I say this, but three years later, I honestly believe this is an exciting time to write long, entertaining nonfiction narratives. I know this first hand.”
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