Digital storytelling opportunities, Documentation tips

Editor's Notes

• #2: Where is COU-PDR with social media, digital documentation Do you have a facebook page, website, twitter handle, blog, camera, audio recorder Who is in charge? Admin? Content contributors
• #3: Explain what is facebook
• #4: BEGIN WTH A MEETING It is important for the whole staff to be involved in social media work. Don’t leave it to the communications person only. DECIDE WHAT THE EDITORIAL NEEDS ARE Do you want stir up debate, use online petitions as an advocacy tactic, share stories of change? Do you want to receive feedback about your work? Discuss what expectations you have on your work with your beneficiaries, audience e.t.c or you just maybe you just want to brag your results to your donor. SELECT WHAT SERVICES AND TOOLS TO USE For a programme that needs to do quick updates, Twitter might be best, while Facebook might be better for building relations and for in-depth information. Starting up a blog if you cant afford a website might be a better option. Most often you will be using a combination of these. New services are forever replacing old ones, so knowledge about them is a perishable good. Procure the necessary tools: Camera, Sound recorder, mobile internet via smartphone or portable router, laptop if you don’t have one already. CHOOSE WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO BE MOST ACTIVE Reflect on when your audience is active on social media. Some common peaks are around 8 and 9 in the morning, when people are commuting to work, around lunchtime and after 8 pm when parents have put small children to bed. By keeping an eye on when your posts are re-tweeted (RT), i.e. when they’re reposted on Twitter, or when people comment on Facebook, you can determine when your visitors are active. Try to adapt to that SET UP ACCOUNTS First have your own personal account Create account (s) for organization and let everyone know; share it with partners, announce on mailing list, ask colleagues to make noise about it, its your official contact put it on your Letterheads, email signatures and all communications internal and external PROCURE TOOLS Source quotations, do a requisition and buy the necessary equipment that will get the work done Take time and learn how to handle and use the tools. Everyone should know how to use the tools without supervision. START BUILDING YOUR NETWORK Use hashtags very very much Ask colleagues, friends, partners..anyone who might be interested in your cause to Like your page, follow you on twitter, read more about the program on your blog, comment on facebook etc etc PUT SOMEONE IN CHARGE Appoint a person to have the main responsibility of managing your social media (social media editors) but that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who should work in social media
• #7: Explain what is facebook
• #18: Who uses WhatsApp? How do you usually use it
• #19: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #20: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #21: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #22: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #23: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #24: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #25: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #26: If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option. Its absolutely free
• #27: Who are you trying to reach? If its Caro, you are trying to reach; Caro wants results. SHOW her RESULTS. SHOW her that due to demand from community, we constructed a police post
• #28: Lets say due to demand from the community, you constructed a police post, take a picture of the police post and share, place it in your report
• #29: If you are going to give statistics, SHOW and TELL
• #30: Other ways your audiences can access/consume the photographs; Exhibitions For a start consider your office as the venue for your exhibition (like in Diakonia’s office). It’s a good a way of constantly remind the staff about what the organization mission/areas of focus. Launch of the exhibition is an event that can be presented as news. Online slideshows If you have been to most LVRP workshops you may be familiar with this. Slideshows allow your audience to browse through a selection of images with accompanying captions and credits, but from the comfort of their home or desk. They retain control over the speed they go through the work, and can return as often as they like to go through the photos and information over multiple visits. Additional information can be signposted with links or downloadable resources. E-mail Disseminating photos by email can be an effective way to get them in front of your target audience but the message has to centre around a single high-impact photo, capturing attention and drawing it to information or a call to action. Press Getting images of change makers and beneficiaries into the press can be a fantastic result, since it introduces the issue being dealt with from the perspective of the affected community/people involved. Demotix (www.demotix.com) is a ‘citizen journalism’ websites that give a platform to showcase work while at the same time putting the work forward to the international media. Social media Whether as a way to reach new people with outputs, or as a way of linking and mobilising action. Whichever social media tools you are using, you must consider how images could feed in to enhance visibility and impact. Consider image hosting platform Flickr Other creative uses; T-shirt exhibitions Beneficiaries wearing T-shirts with captioned photographs on one side and the advocacy message on the other or issues of concern can be visualized in a word cloud and printed on T-shirts and caps. The more people you gather, the more intriguing it will be, and the more likely it will be seen as a stunt worthy of media coverage. Remember that those involved must completely understand what they are contributing to and what the messages on their T-shirts mean, otherwise this is manipulation and reflects badly on the programme and Diakonia as an organization.
• #31: Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph
• #34: HANDS ON How to focus on your subject/focal point and make it clear to the viewer Aperture is the size of the hole of the lens through which light travels, and is measured in f-stops. When the aperture opens up (lower f-stops: f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4), more light enters the camera, resulting in more light being captured. When it’s reduced (higher f-stops: f16, f22, f32), less light enters. More importantly, aperture also affects how blurred or sharp certain areas of the photo are, also known as the depth of field. For a uniformly sharp image — especially in shots of landscapes or architecture — a higher f-stop is used. This keeps both the foreground and background of the image in focus. However, because the aperture is reduced, you’ll require a much longer shutter speed to capture the same amount of light, so that your photo does not get too dark.
• #35: HANDS ON; Introduce Tripod, monopod
• #36: HANDS ON; Introduce Framing line of sight, aerial, oblique, cropping
• #37: HANDS ON; Shoot to the window
• #38: HANDS ON How to adjust exposure Exposure is essentially the amount of light that falls on film or the sensor of your camera, resulting in the overall lightness or darkness of a photo. Measured in stops, or exposure values (EV). On modern cameras, you’ll see a scale that reflects these values, typically over 6 to 9 stops, with 0 EV being the balanced value as judged by the camera.
• #39: Exposure is essentially the amount of light that falls on film or the sensor of your camera, resulting in the overall lightness or darkness of a photo. Measured in stops, or exposure values (EV). On modern cameras, you’ll see a scale that reflects these values, typically over 6 to 9 stops, with 0 EV being the balanced value as judged by the camera.
• #41: Depends on natural light, can be changed during post production, mobile phone tools
• #43: HANDS ON How to use flash Increasing strength of flash ISO With all other factors constant, a low sensitivity (ISO 100 to 800) results in darker images, while higher sensitivities (ISO 3200 onwards) result in brighter images. High ISO pictures are often “noisy,” in that they become grainy or contain discoloration. As a rule of thumb, ISO is set to the lowest possible value that can achieve the desired shutter speed and aperture.
• #45: Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph
• #46: Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph