Storify


EMAC 6374

Text Tool Review by  Meagan Dahl

Storify:http://storify.com/




Overview:
Storify is a website that allows the user to create their own media story by gathering  information from various outlets. Using these various outlets it also pulls information from your database of friends along with others that you may not be connected to. Storify provides an easy-to-use area for searching, including embedded links to applications:



The user can choose a topic and search for related news articles, Tweets, Facebook comments and  Flickr photos, then drag and drop them into an embeddable multimedia story. With the massive amounts information being produced, re-mixed and distributed online, Storify is a valuable tool to curate a plethora of stories into a cohesive structure.
With this tool you can add your own rhetoric to the media object you are adding to your Storify story.

 

For example, a story created about the current tension with Syria may look similar to the one below:


As shown above, the user can add in their own headline story title and comments. They can also view (on the right side of the screen) even further sources containing Syria stories (or other topics). If the user decides they want to add some of these in, they simply drag and drop the story into their Storify story on the left.

 

Sample Usage:

Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR305mwfreY

 

Resources required:
You don't necessarily NEED the following (you can use Storify just by signing up with your email and searching the general population's content), BUT it makes things much easier to see posts from your own friends and family members if you connect your account to:

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Google + accounts (can even just use one or two and it still works just fine)

You can also view posted stories without an account (you just can't make your own story).


Cost, where to access:
Access is free: http://storify.com/

What it Does Well:
Storify makes it easy for users to aggregate and distribute news and information. By storing the meta data of tweets, posts, and images, attribution and content is protected. Storify allows the real stories to come 
through in real time, which is most helpful to journalists, who can gather content from a variety of outlets and fine tune the story they want to tell. Storify is useful because it puts all of the information into one search area instead of searching for each thing through a tool like Google.

 

  

 

They can also check for timeliness of information and provide maps and guidelines for further clarity. Storify also enables the citizen journalist and average user to tell their story on one platform.

The example below is a quick compilation of news stories pertaining to the Last Stand LA protest regarding the war with Syria.

 

 

 

What it Does Poorly:
Storify can seem confusing to first time users. Placing objects on the timeline doesn’t feel intuitive, especially when adding personal text or images in order to make a cohesive story.  When I attempted to create a story, I wasn’t sure where to put in my own commentary in relation to the events I was curating. The diagram below would have been helpful. The Storify website doesn’t provide step-by-step instructions but there are many examples to use as guidelines.




Another problem is that it still takes a large amount of time to mine the various applications (ie. Twitter and Facebook) for information. Many times, when using Storify, it times out and says it cannot access my data information from the desired media tool, like Twitter. This becomes aggravating when trying to be timely in creating a fast breaking story. Although Storify gives the user easy access for searching those apps, any aggregation that happens on the web feels tedious. It’s also important to incorporate fact-checking when curating a story. Storify offers no resources to check the information gathered on feeds for accuracy.

 

What Happens When You:

When you post onto Storify, depending on who and how many see your stories, people can actually very simply click on a piece of your content and get lead to an area where they can contact you. This seemed more creepy than not in my eyes. It's definitely appealing to compile stories via the use of other people's works, but it seems like there is also a thin line that could get crossed when it comes to privacy.

 

When you do not upgrade your Storify account, you are unable to narrow in on one language. Therefore, you're stuck with a flurry of stories in other languages that are more than likely non-legible to you (example below). Weirdly enough, this has not happened all of the time (sometimes it will let you bypass upgrading and will give you just English), but enough to be bothersome for me.

 

 

Additional Resources:

 

While Storify can be used for perhaps a photo-essay for the still image portion of the portfolio project, there are some competitive products that do similar tasks.

Competitive Products--

http://www.aggregage.com/ (Allows users to create the same type of newsletter feed that Storify does, but this is more aligned for business and business news)

https://delicious.com/ (Only allows users to create a random, unorganized pile of seemingly unrelated links, almost like bookmarking)

 

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