Make It Memorable: Writing and Packaging Visual News with Style

by Bob Dotson Special Correspondent, The NBC Today show, Drew Jordan

Overview

This essential guide to visual storytelling for news media students and professionals, grounds you in proven techniques while it lights your path to the future of new media storytelling in the digital world.

In Make It Memorable, former NBC News correspondent Bob Dotson and New York Times visual investigations producer Drew Jordan present a unique and engaging hands-on approach to the craft of visual storytelling. The third edition offers new insight for the digital age and a step-by-step explanation of how to find and create all kinds of visual stories under tight deadlines. In addition to new scripts annotated with behind-the-scenes insights and structural comments, the book includes links to online videos of all the story examples.

Each chapter includes

• Detailed story scripts with video cues, audio cues, story tips, and links to the final productions online.
• Discussion questions to reflect on and apply the chapter's content to your own stories.

Additional book resources

• Glossary of Script Cues
• Reporter's Checklist for every story

New to the third edition

• Insights on new media and digital open-source journalism from Drew Jordan add to Bob Dotson’s classic framework for engaging storytelling.
• Chapter 9: Lighting the Path to What's New draws on Drew Jordan's EMMY and Pulitzer Prize winning work with the New York Times Visual Investigations unit to reveal the latest digital tools for building stories with deeper, richer visual-based narratives.
  • The chapter script analyses the New York Times’ piece: “Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol.”
  • New digital sources and tools include satellite maps and geospatial imaging, bodycam footage, user-generated smartphone footage, and social media content and data.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538174906
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/22/2023
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	608,105
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.46(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bob Dotson, special correspondent for the NBC Today show, has more than forty years of experience in the field of broadcast journalism. His long running “American Story” segment is one of the most honored series in network television history, winning more than 100 awards, including eight Emmys. Dotson has received more than seventy awards, including six Edward R. Murrow Awards for "Best Network News Writing", top journalism awards from DuPont-Columbia and the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, numerous National Headliner Awards, the Sprague Memorial Citation from the National Press Photographers Association, and the William Allen White Foundation’s 2015 National Citation for long-standing journalistic excellence in service to the profession and community.

Drew Jordan is a motion design, graphics, and creative visuals specialist. As a member of the Visual Investigations team at the New York Times, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for coverage of Russia’s bombing of hospitals in Syria and again in 2022 for their coverage of errant drone strikes in Afghanistan. He has been a graphics editor and producer for 6 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, an Alfred I. Du Pont award, a Peabody award, and Malofiej Gold. Previously, he worked as a creative lead for NBC and ran his own studio specializing in motion design for journalistic and documentary productions.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Become a Better Storyteller Chapter 2: Getting Started Chapter 3: Successfully Pitch the Stories You Want to Do Chapter 4: Interviewing  Chapter 5: Look for Different Ways to Tell Your Story Chapter 6: Shooting Your Story Chapter 8: Writing Chapter 9: Lighting the Path to What’s New Additional Videos Available for Viewing Appendix Glossary of Script Cues Acknowledgments  Index  About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

A great story can look so natural but hide the truth that a story is a carefully made thing. The good news is that two great visual storytellers, with skill and generosity, have revealed the process in all of its graceful complexity and shown us the way.

Roy Peter Clark

A great story can look so natural but hide the truth that a story is a carefully made thing. The good news is that two great visual storytellers, with skill and generosity, have revealed the process in all of its graceful complexity and shown us the way.

For generations, Bob Dotson has shown us how to connect with the audience utilizing people-focused video storytelling, both through his work and his instruction. Make It Memorable continues to be an invaluable resource for journalism that matters and the next generation of journalists will surely benefit from this new edition.

Rarely do you get a chance to see how a master storyteller works. This is it. This wonderful book shows you how to build great stories step by step.

From the Publisher

Rarely do you get a chance to see how a master storyteller works. This is it. This wonderful book shows you how to build great stories step by step.

Katie Couric

For generations, Bob Dotson has shown us how to connect with the audience utilizing people-focused video storytelling, both through his work and his instruction. Make It Memorable continues to be an invaluable resource for journalism that matters and the next generation of journalists will surely benefit from this new edition.

Mike Conway

In this age of rapid-fire events and ‘get it on the air now’ coverage, Bob’s work stands out as artistic and mature. The perfect combination of information and intelligence. Read this book. Learn from a master.

Matt Lauer

Writing skills—even in this age of visual, multimedia, and web/social media-based news—remain integral to reporting. Dotson takes the reader inside his writing and reporting process through annotated script examples, and helps students understand the most important attribute of being a reporter: curiosity.

Joe Sampson

A unique and invaluable teaching tool. Make It Memorable offers a view into how a master storyteller like Dotson thinks and the decisions he makes; it breaks down the process of storytelling in a very understandable way.

Judd Slivka

For anyone interested in the art of marrying pictures, sound, and words, Dotson’s text is packed with accessible and fundamental advice. If you want to become a better storyteller and you’re only going to read one book, this is the one to read.

Steve Sweitzer

Teaching broadcast journalism means teaching the craft that Bob Dotson mastered over a 50-year career. While everyone speculates about what news will look and sound like tomorrow, Dotson reminds us to embrace our storytelling roots today. Anyone who wants to inspire journalists to write as well as Bob Dotson does should certainly read anything he writes, including this book.

Keren Henderson

Bob Dotson is a master at this difficult craft of writing and producing television news stories. His book is a treasure for novice and pro alike.

Tom Brokaw

Bob Dotson is a true craftsman at the art of writing for television. Make It Memorable will help any aspiring journalist.

Tim Russert

Short, to the point, and filled with tips on how to make a daily story interesting and unique. Make It Memorable really delves into the mind of the reporter, and the process of what it takes to tell a good story, from start to finish.

Ryan Parkhurst

Bob Dotson is the epitome of all that a storyteller should be. He finds fascinating subjects, engages the audience, and we come away from his stories feeling better for hearing his stories.

Ann M. Brill