SXSW + FRONTLINE - Envisioning the Future of Storytelling

Chop up the programs...

Tweet while viewing...

Publish everything -- even that seven-hour video interview...

And let viewers re-edit the films!

These are just a few of the thoughts that surfaced in conversations with two dozen leaders in journalism, technology and business at this year's SXSW Interactive in Austin. We invited them to talk to us about long-form journalism, social media, video viewing and where in all of this the FRONTLINE series fits.

With the upheavals in newsrooms and TV viewing habits, we wanted to brainstorm how FRONTLINE can leverage its strengths -- great stories, thought-provoking investigations and demonstrated leadership on the Web -- to expand its audience and impact across multimedia platforms. According to FRONTLINE's senior producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, this is what keeps her up at night: trying to imagine how the narrative documentary changes when applied to and viewed on different platforms. She says she knows for certain it's not as simple as taking a film and just putting it on a tablet.

Our guests, including NPR's Andy Carvin, The Onion's Baratunde Thurston and Columbia Journalism School's Emily Bell, challenged us to think creatively.

Multiplatform Video

"There's a myth people only watch very short video online," says TED Executive Producer June Cohen. So what keeps people engaged on long-form video? Suggestions included having a single voice guide through a narrative and making the video front and center, and away from all the social media/breaking news distractions.

Some raised the issue of viewers' different expectations for video, depending on the platform. Is the same film markedly different depending on whether it's viewed on television, a tablet or online?

Instapaper was referenced as a tool that might address some of the issues. It's an application for saving and reading long-form pieces in a simple, more personalized way on various devices. Can something similar be developed for long-form video?

The Corporation for Public Brodcasting's vice president for digital media strategy Robert Bole asked, "What do you do with the film once it airs?" Baratunde Thurston suggested being able to take your library and "remix it" is key to making an archive a "living and breathing" thing; Emily Bell agreed, saying that the ability to smartly chop up video is "crucial to your future." Reddit's Erik Martin urged us to start this "chopping" before a film airs, not as an afterthought.

AOL product manager Beth Davidz urged us to make it easy for viewers watching online or on a tablet to find and isolate quotes or statistics and share them. Offer transcription synced with the video, she said, so the viewer can see the text, click on and save.

Transparency and Access

How far do you go? Back in 1995 with Waco: The Inside Story, FRONTLINE began publishing online transcripts of extended interviews as well as a lot of other content and artifacts uncovered in the reporting process. How else can we, or should we, open up FRONTLINE's journalism and filmmaking?

Internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis suggested showing on the website rough cuts of films in progress. Entertainment agent George Ruiz proposed letting viewers re-edit programs. Others wondered what would happen if we published raw transcripts and video of our extended interviews. Raney Aronson-Rath asked whether there's an interest in sitting through a seven-hour interview.

Emily Bell noted there's an audience that would be extremely interested in an editorial blog that, while not revealing specifics about a story, explores the challenges in making long-form documentaries and offers insights into larger journalistic questions.

Engagement

"I hate to break up a good fight," said Emily Bell during a conversation between Jason Calacanis and Baratunde Thurston on whether or not FRONTLINE should be using Twitter. "Why would you want to waste your time on Twitter when you make such beautiful films?" asked Calacanis, to which Thurston responded, "I disagree with you strongly."

There were a variety of different perspectives on how the series should harness social media. Andy Carvin told us FRONTLINE "excels at what you're seeing on the screen, and so if I'm going to watch a FRONTLINE, I don't tweet during FRONTLINE because I want to absorb it. I've never tweeted a FRONTLINE once. ... You do such deliberate, in-depth journalism that I want to really get what's going on."

Carvin's strategic advice from his NPR experience: It doesn't matter who's tweeting -- it's a host or an assistant; it matters more that you have an authentic voice. Emily Bell agreed, saying you can't do social media effectively behind a brand alone. And Twitter's Erica Anderson emphasized that emotive tweets reflecting real life tend to get more traction. She also explained how you can stagger a narrative in tweet fashion, giving out bits of a story online to keep people engaged with the narrative over time, and tying it all together with a hashtag.

Bell also cited a recent study about Facebook "Likes," stressing that it's not the amount of material put out or how often, but the quality and durability of it that gets the most traction.

Lastly, Calacanis offered this thought: There are in-depth discussions going on about FRONTLINE's programs that we're not even aware of because they're not part of the "noise" of the Web. He suggested we find and encourage more of these behind-the-scenes conversations.