Unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, have made their way out of military laboratories and into local electronics shops during the past ten years. Today, anybody can buy their own drone for as little as 300 euros. And the unmanned craft can even be used by journalists, for example, to cover protests or catastrophes.

Marcus Bösch talks about the pros and cons of drone journalism.

Just days before I was supposed to go skiing over the Christmas holidays, my Twitter feed lit up with a lot of people talking about an avalanche story. More specifically, the New York Times web project Snow Fall – a multimedia feature about a deadly avalanche.

It’s a brilliant long format multimedia feature, showcasing in-depth reporting and using probably everything in the multimedia storytelling toolbox: text, maps, graphics, photos, video, audio and animation. And that’s just what you see and hear. Underneath the hood there is another world of programming and code. This is a long, labour intensive project.

Henning Sussebach

Do feature articles have to be about catastrophes or celebrities to be good? According to the award-winning German print journalist, Henning Sußebach, not at all. Sußebach believes that intriguing topics can be found directly on your doorstep. In this blog post, he explains how ideas taken from everyday life can be made into stories that engage readers.

How do journalists find their stories? To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if it isn’t the other way around – that it’s the stories which find the journalists. When this happens, it often makes for a better article because the journalist isn’t trying too hard to make an idea work; the story was already there just waiting to be told.

But happens when you run out of ideas? Does talking help? Or going for a walk? Is there a short cut to finding topics?

It’s best to keep headlines simple!

Always keep in mind this question: If a user only read the five to 10 words of your headline, would he or she know what the article was about?

Here are a few points to remember:

• Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.

• Headlines should be based on the main idea of the story.

• If facts are not in the story, do not use them in a headline.

• Avoid repetition.

• Avoid ambiguity, insinuations and double meanings.

• If a story qualifies a statement, the headline should also.

• Use present tense verbs.

• For the future tense, use the infinitive form of the verb.

DW Akademie’s Meeting and Exchange Project for Indian Journalists has kicked off in Bonn. Until the end of October, six young journalists are gaining a closer look at various aspects of multimedia reporting.

The Indian fellows point out their home to project managers Sabina Casagrande and Patrick Benning

A total of eight trainers are providing insight into a range of facets in multimedia coverage, such as writing for online, the role of audio and video elements or what significance photos and data hold.

The goal of the fellowship – which is financed by the Robert Bosch Stiftung – is to give these journalists a better understanding of German-Indian issues and provide them with the opportunity to cover these stories on a multimedia platform. During their seven-week stay in Germany, the fellows are researching and compiling stories on the issue of sustainability to publish in a multimedia project.