Hackastory

10 inspirational digital stories made with tools

Need some inspiration for your digital story? We collected 10 inspirational digital stories by news organizations that used one of the tools on our list to make your story stand out. They show that you don’t always need a team with a coder to innovate in journalism.

CNN – TimelineJS

Knightlab made some interesting tools for journalists which can’t be missing in your toolkit. One of them is Timeline.js: a tool for making stunning timelines. Scroll down in the article of CNN to see a timeline of North Korea’s nuclear history and ambitions.

The Guardian – Steller 

With Steller you can tell a story on social media through photos, videos and text. In this article from The Guardian you see a Steller story about the rise of the horse, Protectionist (Melbourne Cup winner).  

Vice News- Wirewax

Upload a video into Wirewax and add tags to engage your users directly. Vice uses this in as an interactive way of newsflash.

De Morgen – JuxtaposeJS

With Juxtapose.JS you can compare two pictures interactively: between then and now or two versions of things. You only need two pieces of similar media. Belgian newspaper De Morgen made a Juxtapose about coral mortality.

NRC – Thinglink  

With Thinglink you can make interactive pictures, videos or VR productions. In every production, you can add different call-to-action buttons. The Dutch newspaper NRC used it on an infographic about James Bond.

Euronews – Infogr.am

Use Infogr.am to make charts and infographics by uploading data, customize it and share or embed it. You can choose from all kinds of chart types. Euronews used it in an article about Bulgaria being the most miserable country in the EU.

The Washington Post- SoundciteJS 

The Washington Post made an article with Soundcite.JS. With this tool you can place audio into your web text without any code.

Deutschlandradio – Klynt

Klynt is an interactive editing and publishing application. Deutschlandradio made a production about the question: who owns Germany?

France Bleu – Racontr  

Racontr, like Klynt, allows storytellers to create interactive stories. France Bleu made a documentary about people who seek thrills and break records, to prove to the world that nothing is impossible for them. 

Le Monde – Coveritlive

Coveritlive makes it possible to design and publish your live experience on your website. Le Monde made a liveblog about the situation in Ukraine in 2014.

More examples 

Interested in more examples? We collected a bunch of interesting links in this spreadsheet.

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