Multimedia Storytelling: Authoring for Interactive Media

Anna Podara Nikos Vryzas

DIM 111 Multimedia Storytelling: Authoring for Interactive Media

Elective
Semester:
B
ECTS:
10

About This Course

Course Description

This course aims to teach students how to create news stories with multimedia tools, creating an engaging experience for the audience. During this skills-oriented course, students are called to design and implement a multimedia project. Hard skills of multimedia projects implementation and management and soft skills on creative thinking, collaboration, time-management, problem-solving and effective communication are developed. Several contemporary examples of successful multimedia storytelling projects will be discussed, to capture the latest trends in the field. Starting from the introduction to storytelling as a communication tool and the shift from traditional to digital principles, the learning path leads from the conception of a creative idea to formulation of a technical project plan. Emphasis is given to the specific characteristics and also to the medium that is suitable for each content type. The students work hands-on individually and in groups in the laboratory, with practical exercises that include animated material and interactive multimedia content and make it available through various technologies. These utilities may include the creation of user interfaces and interactive prototypes (mockups on Balsamiq Studios, Figma, etc.), web design services (Wix, etc.), interactive video authoring and publishing (YouTube, h5p.org, etc.), social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) and others.

Course Objectives

  • Understand basic storytelling principles in a multimedia environment.
  •  Adopt best copywriting practices to tackle attractiveness, discoverability, and engagement (e.g. audience targeting, SEO, etc.) of a news story.
  • Explain the technological evolution by analyzing content and application specifications.
  • Investigate interaction in multimedia storytelling, from the User eXperience (UX) perspective.
  • Analyse, understand and exploit new digital content production collaborative models in both freelancers and media organizations.

Learning Outcomes

1.Comprehend multimedia content production, pre- and post-processing tools, multimedia authoring and media assets integration.
2.Understand the different types of media and their role in multimedia storytelling.
3.Understand multimedia application packaging and distribution strategies.
4.Understanding the role of multimodal digital content and its metadata in the New Media landscape towards the transition to the Semantic Web (Web 3.0 and beyond).
5.Acquire the demanded technological know-how and skills in order to fully exploit the potentials of New Media in digital content production, authoring, sharing, accessing and interacting, including augmented documentation through semantic tagging.
6.Comprehend and adapt with the new digital content production roles in both media organizations and UGC models.

Class/Learning activities

Lectures, tools and services presentations, laboratory exercises and demos, multimedia production projects.

Workload

Type of work Description Hours
Lectures thirteen 1-hour lectures 13
Laboratory exercises thirteen 2-hour exercises 26
Laboratory preparation Study of material related to tools and services 26-39
Section projects 2 section projects: 1) Designing & Prototyping, and 2) Media assets production / selection 40-50
Final multimedia production project Integrated multimedia production project, including authoring, publishing and dissemination 150-160
Total workload 255-288

Assessment

Type of assessment Learning outcome Impact on final grade Date of assessment
Participation in group discussion 1-4 10% 1st-12rd week
Laboratory exercises 2-5 20% 2nd – 9th week
Section projects 2-6 30% 4th, 7th, 10th week
Final project 5,6 40% 13th week

Recommended Bibliography

  • Balsamiq [low-fidelity UI wireframing] Retrieved on 7 February 2023 from: https://balsamiq.com/learn/
  • Figma [high-fidelity interactive prototyping]. Retrieved on 7 February 2023 from: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/categories/360002042553-Figma-design/
  • Markova, V., & Sukhoviy, O. (2020). Storytelling as a Communication Tool in  Journalism: Main Stages of Development. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 9(2), 355-366. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i2.2516
  • Podara, A., Giomelakis, D., Nicolaou, C., Matsiola, M., & Kotsakis, R. (2021). Digital storytelling in cultural heritage: Audience engagement in the interactive documentary new life. Sustainability, 13(3), 1193.
  • Vaughan, T. (2014). Multimedia: making it work. 9th Ed., McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.
  • Shneiderman B., Plaisant C., Cohen Μ., Jacobs S. (2010). Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley Publ. Co., Reading, MA (5th Ed.).
  • Wix [web building /CMS platform] (N.D.). Wix help center. Retrieved on 7 February 2023, from https://support.wix.com/en/