CNN.com launches ‘Backstory’ feature
Cory Bergman August 16th, 2008
“(Backstory is) a quick way to catch up on how a story has developed over time,” explains CNN.com senior producer Rachel Clarke. “Now, when we want to give history, context and background to a developing story, we go back through our archives to find ‘milestone’ events and then link those together in an interactive window.” Take a look at Backstory in action right here.
1 Comment Add your own
1. Charles | August 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I’m torn on this. On the one hand, this is experimentation and trying something new. It’s challenging what you can do with news stories and how you can present past information.
On the other hand, will time be spent on whipping up one of these Apple-like gadgets, in the same amount of time normally spent for the back half of an article, which normally provides the back story and other vital information? And who will want to read a whole lot of outdated stories? Not just the normal 2-3 links like most good news sites provide. But 10?
Do we have to write out that information? Or do we need a flashy gadget?
It’s an interesting concept. And it’ll be interesting to see if:
A) other news organizations copy this
B) other news organizations figure out what they can do better
C) if CNN is doing this a year from now
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