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Aim for the Heart: Writing, Reporting, Photojournalism, Producing, Ethics and Resources for journalists

tompkins@poynter.org

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Category: Online and Social Media

Alaska media show how to use social media to cover the 7.0 quake

December 1, 2018 al

Anchorage TV stations kept reporting even when a 7.0 earthquake knocked them all off the air and trashed the CBS affiliate KTVA. Journalists who had

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Some of the Cool Tools I showed at EIJ 2018

September 28, 2018 al

Legend for iPhone turns words into stunning text animations, in video or animated GIF. Perfect for Instagram, Vine, SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp. You can do subtle images

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Recent Posts

Deconstruct line by line a video that got 4 million views
20 story ideas for you
What exactly does “social distancing” mean in real life?
Helping Journalists Covering COVID-19 Manage Stress and Trauma
Al’s Morning Meeting Daily Story ideas is back
Download our “Managing Newsroom Stress and Trauma” handout
A new edition of Al’s Cool Tools to download
A story full of visual surprises
A Local TV Station Dedicates 3-Years to Investigating Hospital Billing
This anchor created a simple system that resulted in more women experts getting on TV. No bosses or consultants were involved.

Nieman Lab

A new set of threats to the BBC — internal and external — challenges its role as anchor of U.K. media
Allissa Richardson thinks it’s time to shatter a few myths about citizen journalism
“‘Warp speed’ was an unfortunate term”: With Covid-19, vaccine messaging faces an unprecedented test
Following successful experiments, Twitter will prompt all users to read the articles they’re about to retweet
The fight over racism, sexism, and other misconduct in public radio isn’t going away
As local news outlets shift to subscription, they wonder: What should Facebook’s role be?
The new folks in town are an untapped audience for local news (even if they don’t stay forever)

InteractiveNarratives.org

Junkoâs Story: Surviving Hiroshimaâs Atomic Bomb
An intimate account of one young girlâs harrowing experience and miraculous survival.
The Boat
âThe Boatâ, an interactive graphic novel about escape after the Vietnam War. Based on the story by Nam Le, adapted by Matt Huynh.
Which Direction Do You Sleep?
A kinetic type story illustrating a common understanding within Ayurvedic practice. Created for my motion graphics class this semester at Ohio University.
Cronulla Riots - The Day That Shocked the Nation
Investigate the simmering tensions between groups of Australians that led to racially motivated violence at Sydneyâs Cronulla Beach in December 2005.
Rebuilding Haiti
Four years after the earthquake, how is Haiti rebuilding itself? If you were part of the process, would you be able to make the right choices? âRebuilding HaÃ¯ti" is an interactive piece of journalism. The form mixes newsgame and longform journalism. The story is about development issues (like rural exodus, land reform and brain drain). […]
Blind Wrestler
Shot and Produced by Jose F. Moreno/Courier-Post

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Columbia Journalism Review

The Times drops the mother lode on Trump’s taxes
Ohio’s Whitest Home Newspaper
What was the Notorious RBG like as a source?
The Breonna Taylor decision, violence, and power
Deconstructing the News Desert
TikTok, a political football, is still up in the air

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