We gathered students, journalists, developers and designers to get together and conceptualize something new for the news industry. This was our first organized hack event – The Future of Storytelling Hack.
The hack was a team-based, news-media-focused prototyping and experimentation event within storytelling over two days at Kungsbrohuset, Schibsted and Aftonbladets headquarter in Stockholm.
A good story used to be presented with text and images. Thanks to new media and digital technologies, now we can approach storytelling from unique perspectives. Good storytelling is when we can add digital layers to a traditional way stories are told in order to enhance it and engage the user.
WHAT IS GOOD STORYTELLING?
There is no easy answer. We invited Martin Schori, author of the book Digital Only, to talk about storytelling from his perspective and Yonna Ingolf & Annika Fogelgren from King.com inspired us by talking about how they work with making stories building popular games.
The Future of Storytelling seems to be social, gamified and engaging. Read more about the overall trends from the hack here. A total of six teams showcased their hacks this sunny saturday when everybody else was out enjoying the sun.
TEAM PRESENTATIONS
Team 1, “Co | jo”
Maria Fabricius, Didrik Persson, Peter Elmered, Björn Udd
Many groups highlighted that change is required in the editorial field. As well as reconnecting with readers. Young people are getting their news from other sources than traditional media. Reconnecting with this group has its challenges.
The insight was that we break, discuss and debate the news in other forums such as Reddit, Flashback and Twitter. How can Aftonbladet reinvent the investigative journalism and engage the users more?
Co | jo is a platform for crowd sourced journalism. A journalist from Aftonbladet acts as key author and moderator while the users can contribute. Think of the way you can collaborate in a Google Doc.
- A story told in real-time
- Written by people you admire, together with you
- Make regular visitors feel involved in the production of news
Team 2, “The Chronicle”
Mikkel Hougaard Jespersen, Göran Törnquist, Amanda Dahl, Johan Ståhlberg
In order to engage users more we should build on transparency and participation. Can Aftonbladet get the user to be a part of the story?
A story should be broken down into smaller parts and published over time as the journalists work goes forward. Together with embedded social posts this will be on a “story page” as it develops. The reader can also get behind the scenes with info such as costs, meetings with persons behind the story and what tools are being used creating this actual story.
Along with the story there are “tracks” built of what knowledge you want from the story such as novice, beginner and expert where you can choose wheter to get a quick overview or to be the expert by leveling up.
This might;
- Increase the understanding and respect for quality journalism
- Make the reader feel engaged in the story by gamification and behind the scene content
- Make quality journalism more user friendly and available
- Making the story bigger than itself
- Making the story feel more real
Team 3, “Läsarkampen”
Therese Andersson, Daniel Ingmo, Alla Rybina
Why don´t Aftonbladet connect all its content and services around a specific event such as Euro 2016, Eurovision Song Contest, etc. and add a gamification layer on top of it? Read, stream, share and predict the outcome to gain points. Level up from “Couch supporter” to “Zlatan” by watching TV clips, reading articles and share them. Engaged users should also be involved in our TV formats together with our profiles.
This makes the users more engaged and promotes our top content in social channels.
Team 4A, “Your personal news assistant”
Viggo Cavling, Charlotte Averman
A personal assistant chat bot focused on how news in the right context will simplify your day. Based on voice as interface.
Team 4B, “Clara”
Based on the same AI intelligence as above but with a predictive based interface.
Team 5, “Scoop”
Tove Andersson, Evert Lagerberg, Martin Adlercreutz
Today news experiences are fragmented over various articles and not yet personalized. That calls for a repetitive and ineffective user experience.
Can we enhance time spent per session by serving more personalized content and challenge readers to read more if they can show off what knowledge they gain?
Scoop is a gamification and personalisation layer that can be applied to stories on Aftonbladet. This can be used to personalize the content and at the same time encourage the user to engage more with the articles.
- Begin at level one or take a quiz to determine your current knowledge level
- Level up by taking short quizes after an article
- Share your results or challenge a friend.
Well executed, this solution might;
- Help us personalise content in articles
- Increase time spent by engaging users
- Increase logged in sessions
Team 6, “Mobius”
Greta Rönneskog, Didrik Lindqvist, Guido Hermans, Ola Samzelius
All content providers strive to personalize its content. Filter bubbles, through algorithms deliver news that support your already existing views rather than challenging them. Can we deliver news in a more transparent way in order to broaden personal views and opinions?
How do we allow people to build their own perspective on news stories? Meet Mobius.
A two perspective format to communicate the news in order to bring nuance to news stories. By allowing the reader to choose their path in the story and get both perspectives, it will encourage them to develop their own opinions on the issue.
Mobius. “Two sides to every story”. Not for every story but stories which have two opposing perspectives.
SUMMARY
This was our first hack with external guests. We are super happy with the results! Now we will do our best implementing ideas and insights born under these days. We will definitely do more hackdays. 🙂
What we can do better at our next hack;
- Narrow down the focus to a specific challenge we face
- Give more insights about how we see the actual topic
- Talk more about how we work with innovation
- Make room for team dynamic workshops
Read more about the overall trends from the hack here.
