Turning a little into a lot

One of the hardest obstacles to face as an online producer is taking a story that didn't have a lot to begin with and to make it run online. One story that has been plaguing the newsroom has been the Murray murder trial. The story of the trial of the Kansas State professor who murdered his ex-wife is a major news story for Lawrence. Our obstacle at KUJH-TV is that we do not have as much access to information as we would like to have. Plus, some of our reporters might not be as adept at court reporting as those at perhaps Channel 6. So what can we do? Web extras.

In almost every Murray trial story, we have not used our potential to expand beyond the boring readers that we re-post online. For instance, this story touches on how testimony would begin Thursday. A great idea for catching readers up with this story would be an interactive timeline. I think Flash has the capabilities of producing a timeline that is dynamic and would allow the readers to click on specific events regarding this investigation, and eventually the trial, and read previous stories.

Another option is one we talked about in class on Wednesday. We are itching to do a photo slideshow somewhere on this website. An option for tv.ku.edu would a photo slideshow from various points in the timeline. At this point, we wouldn't have the amount of photos or the rights to get such photos, but the opportunity is still there to somehow create a photo slideshow from footage that we do have.

This next web extra is really specific to the particular story. Murray has been charged with murder, and some evidence includes Internet searches. An interesting sidebar story would be how using the Internet for investigations is such a relevant occurrence. Obviously the sidebar would be relevant to the story, but having the story be about Internet on the Internet is interesting as well.

Coming up with "legs" for stories like the Murray trial should be what online producers want to do. Throwing up the cast script for a story about a murder trial in Douglas County will not do on the Internet anymore. The next time we approach this story, let's approach it from new, interesting angles.