Digital Storytelling Beyond Flagship Projects: Exploring Multimedia Work Routines in Higher Education Practical Training

Abstract

Research on longform multimedia storytelling has mainly focused on the practices of large-scale media outlets which have the necessary means to produce resource-intensive multimodal stories. This paper investigates how digital storytelling production can be managed with limited resources in smaller, more inexperienced teams in order to be applicable beyond flagship projects. It thereby explores the (new) skills future journalists need to acquire within their education in order to become proficient in multimedia work routines. Following the team-based learning approach (TBL), 41 early-career journalists produced multimedia stories in higher education practical training in a simulated low-budget editorial office. By conducting a quantitative survey among all participants and a qualitative content analysis of one guided interview per team (n = 7), results show that working according to individual skills, maintaining a strong group accountability and staying flexible were important success factors under these circumstances. The largest obstacles were the conceptualization of complex projects under timed conditions as well as the disproportionately high communication efforts. In order for the production of multimedia stories to become more efficient and have greater applicability to smaller media outlets, the implementation of both project management and communication skills in higher education practical and editorial training are recommended.