WEB STORIES
Strong writing is one of the key skills for anyone in a journalism career. I have written a variety of pieces from breaking news, feature stories and sports.
January 2022
During the summer of 2021, a Dane County couple went missing and their son was arrested days later. I helped cover the case online from various developments in the case to the trial itself, and now, his appeal process. To keep viewers informed on all the moving parts, I created a series of interactive graphics for readers to go through. This includes a timeline with each development that I continue to update now, a map of locations of importance to the case, and the raw sound from our reporter's interview with the suspect, Chandler Halderson, before he was named a suspect and arrested (he had refused to go on camera at the time). I also used basic HTML to code expandable sections that readers could open to get background on the case prior to the trial, if they hadn't been staying with it or were new to the case. The graphics included use of Knightlab features.
May 2022
When I started at WMTV, I wanted to prioritize collaboration with reporters on creating "web-extra" content to tease to during newscasts and give viewers another element to digest. This story, written by Elizabeth Wadas, is an example of working with the investigative team to create a before-and-after slidebar of the destruction at Didion Milling after an explosion, as well as a timeline in the events since the explosion. These features were made using Knightlab and Flourish graphics.
Oct. 2022
My collaboration on station web stories also extends to the Sports department. The firing of UW-Madison football coach Paul Chryst was treated as breaking news at WMTV and we wanted to highlight what the players were saying. Several of the players spoke during a news conference, so I created an interactive graphic with the players' headshots and a statement, as well as a written article.
Sept. 2022
This story provides an update on a series the WMTV newsroom has been following since January of 2022, the arrest and shooting of an unarmed man in north Madison. This story provides an example of more web-extra elements, a timeline and gif of the scene the day of the arrest. Two state agents fired their weapons and one of them was charged in September of 2022. We were the first in our market to break this news. I often have to comb through criminal complaints as a digital producer to publish a web story that is easy for readers to digest, as well as producers and reporters in our newsroom. Information on the criminal complaint was included in this article.
Election Coverage: Barnes concedes as Johnson claims Senate win
Tony Evers projected winner of Wisconsin gubernatorial race
Nov. 2022
Election night is an all-hands-on-deck experience in any newsroom. At WMTV, my duties included updating our web stories in real time based on content provided from our reporters in the field. I updated these two stories throughout the night with reporter social media posts, information from their broadcast scripts, and pictures/videos from the field. The stories also provide interactive graphics from the Associated Press, as well as a horse race graphic created by our newsroom.
April 2023
Severe weather is a huge part of any broadcast newsroom and is very important to keeping viewers informed. When wildfires started in central Wisconsin this spring, our reported headed up there and I kept our website and social media pages updated. This story includes several viewer submitted photos from people I had reached out to on social media while our reporter was making the 2-hour drive up. This story includes information from two wildfires that started the same day, and are displayed in two different sections of the story.