The Beast File: Infographic Storytelling

Catholic priests, Greenpeace terrorists, and what Tim Burton has to do with Obama’s entourage.

We have a soft spot for infographic storytelling — from a data-driven take on The Little Red Riding Hood to animated infoviz for kids to an infographic breakdown of web history. We’ve recently discovered a wonderful Australian program, The Hungry Beast, whose series The Beast File hits right in the middle of this sweet spot — part modern muckraking, part typographic animation, part data-driven storytelling. Sadly, Hungry Beast got pulled from the air in April, but we’ve curated five fantastic episodes to immortalize its infographic legacy.

CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX SCANDALS

In the past 50 years, some 30,000 people in 25 countries have reported abuse by Catholic priests. The Beast File takes a critical look at a serious problem that has been well-documented yet unresolved in over 2,000 years of Catholic church history.

GOOGLE

Hungry Beast pulls back the curtain to probe a bit deeper into the world’s premiere purveyor of “Don’t be evil” philosophy, from the Big G’s impressive media portfolio to their 187 patents and the many subtle ways in which the search giant has penetrated our daily lives.

PAUL WATSON

Controversial environmental activist Paul Watson was among the most influential early members of Greenpeace, but was notoriously axed from the organization for supporting strategies of direct, radical action that conflicted with Greenpeace’s philosophy of nonviolence. Though his work was pivotal in enforcing marine regulations against illegal whalers and sealers, The Beast File nails Watson’s aura of controversy by calling him “one man’s freedom fighter, another man’s terrorist.”

MDMA

MDMA, or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, was synthesized by accident in 1912 and enjoyed a long career of illicit use as ecstasy. Because of its reckless recreational use, MDMA was quickly pulled from the world of medicine and banned as part of the war on drugs, but doctors continued to campaign for its use in medical research, uncovering some evidence for the drug’s efficiency in treating PTSD and anxiety disorders.

OBAMA’S ENTOURAGE

A job consisting solely of keeping track of throat lozenges may seem like the kind of absurd occupation you’d encounter in a Tim Burton film, unless these are Obama’s throat lozenges. Then it becomes a matter of national security — and the very non-fictional job of one man on the president’s 500-person entourage. In this episode, The Beast File introduces us to some of the more curious portable White House staffers that go everywhere Obama goes.

And is it just us, or did the voiceover lady slip a Bushism in there with her “nucular” pronunciation?

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Tags: animation, cool, culture, data visualization, history, politics, typography
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News21: Next-Gen Storytelling for the Multimedia Age

From frontlines to bylines, or what the future of journalism has to do with a countryside ranch.

A few weeks ago, Neil Burgess, former head of Magnum Photos, caused quite a stir by declaring photojournalism dead. While his argument had a handful of strong points reagarding the economics of photographic storytelling, it was held together by a rather narrow and traditional definition of photojournalism as a genre within print and news media. Today, we look at an inspired project that holds promise for the future of photojournalism in a way that makes Burgess’ argument crumble.

News21 is national education initiative pushing for new forms of investigative reporting and multimedia storytelling. Led by a dozen of America’s leading research universities and backed by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force, the project aims to approach journalism education from all angles — curriculum, policymaking, hands-on experience, cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Since 2006, News21 has been initiating annual projects grouped under umbrella themes that change every year — Liberty vs. Security in 2006, Faces of Faith in America in 2007, What’s at Stake around the 2008 Election and Changing America in 2009. This year, the project tackles a complex, multifaceted and highly controversial issue: War.

In late May, 10 journalism students spanning the entire spectrum of print-online, broadcast, graphics and photography staked out in a bunkhouse ranch in northeastern Washington state, where for six weeks they tasked themselves with getting to know the area’s thriving community of war veterans. The team set out to explore the consequences of war — from PTSD, to divorce to criminal activity to suicide — through the rich human stories of the veterans.

From an infographic map of veteran population to an interactive gallery bespeaking the diversity of a group so often addressed as a lump-sum monolith, the results are brimming with beautifully crafted photojournalism, meticulously edited multimedia storytelling, and thoughtful art direction.

One hidden yet priceless piece of the project we’d like to point you to is the Innovation Lessons section, culled from News21’s experience-gleaned insights. From the dynamics of team reporting to the importance of visual thinking to the intricacies of non-linear storytelling, the section is a deluge of invaluable practical guidance applicable to any loosely defined journalist, from the professional magazine editor to the blogger to the photojournalist.

Follow @news21 on Twitter for updates on the project and an altogether excellent feed of next-gen journalism.

via NPR

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Tags: collaboration, culture, education, innovation, multimedia, photography
Posted in culture, multimedia, partnerships, photography | 60 Comments »