Verify on Storify- Exploring News Curation

As a new user to Storify, I was unsure of what to expect at first. Without the requirement to explore news curation as part of my degree, the layout of the site could have scared me away originally, had it not been compulsory for me to carry on. However, through some basic guidance of Storify and a good deal of trial and error, I found myself able to navigate the system and produce some stories of my own.

 Unlike any platform I have worked with before, I knew news curation required perhaps more thought than other platforms I’d used for journalism, such as microblogging on Twitter. The act of content curation involved me not only finding the information I needed to create a Storify, but also arranging the material to form a coherent structure to my narratives. This could be tricky at times due to the wealth of information available online that needed filtering to determine the relevance to my stories.

 Nonetheless, as a result of the time I spent using Storify, I feel I have gained a deeper understanding into the many ways news can be conveyed online. It’s easy for me to turn to more conventional styles of journalism in order to find what I am looking for but, now I am aware of Storify’s existence, I will be returning to it more often.

 Unlike microblogging, Storify allows the creator to present as much information as they require to communicate the story at hand. Users have near-limitless access to sources they can draw on online and, once you understand the programme, you can produce some sophisticated work.

 But, like all news curation, it is important to note copyright and the inability to use some people’s work. However, in spite of this, there is such an abundance of sources freely available online it is likely you can find similar material on another site.

 It is apparent that Storify is a popular curation tool. This can be recognised through statistics generated by Quantcast estimating the amount of Storify users per month in the USA. As up to date results, we can see that in the last 7 months, August saw the biggest increase in user activity. Up 13%, the platform reached an impressive 1, 697, 660 users. It is unclear why the graph shows a decrease succeeding August, but further statistics will determine the popularity of Storify.



https://www.quantcast.com/storify.com

 

 

 Overall, I found the biggest challenge to be finding a topic to curate. With little restriction on subjects which can be presented, the vastness can make the choice harder. As a student studying journalism, I decided to create my first Storify on a news story dominating the press. I decided to explore the Ebola crisis. However, I didn’t want to just report the facts on the virus, I wanted to explore how the media had covered it. As a result of this angle, I gained a deeper understanding into the way journalists report specific areas and the challenges reporters face when entering a dangerous environment.

 As a result of my engagement on Storify, I believe I have gained a deeper understanding into not just news curation, but the topics I explored as well. By grouping a variety of materials, I felt my stories conveyed additional depth that traditional forms of media cannot display. In the long term, I am glad to have explored this platform.