by Marguerite Meyer, Head of Multimedia
The year 2017 started for SWI swissinfo.ch with the inauguration of the production room – and the new Multimedia Department. What had grown historically and was distributed around the organisation, was now an editorial department of its own – it was set up and coalesced naturally.
One year on, the Multimedia team now concentrates in one place all the audiovisual expertise in the organisation: visual editors, online and data journalists, a graphic designer, and community developer. We film, cut, photograph, create displays, write, and we work with social media and storytelling, keeping our finger on the pulse of the swissinfo.ch communities.
Multimedia content in ten languages
Our team works closely together with the other journalists across the organisation to produce multimedia content in ten languages – which in itself is a challenge of coordination. We also provide advice and support. We act as an interface to Marketing, Technology and IT. In 2017 we also cooperated with other sections of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, SBC, for instance in the national project “Nouvo”, which uses videos made for social media to provide younger users with a window on swissinfo.ch content.
What results can we see after a year in operation? The multilingual Multimedia Department is now fully integrated into the everyday editorial work and processes of swissinfo.ch. A concerted effort has been made to enable all journalists in the organisation to implement multimedia content.
Coming up with the right presentation format
swissinfo.ch has great potential for multimedia storytelling. Anchoring this in journalistic production across the board is a main goal for our team in 2018. We also want to move towards closer cooperation with the other units of the SBC – be it in common projects, the most effective use of tools, or shared platforms, such as the SBC video website, ‘Play’.
Whether it’s live-streaming or 360-degree reporting, social videos or presentations that demystify complex sets of figures – we select the optimal media format to tell the important stories our readers expect. We always try to find the presentation that will offer the best, most enjoyable and exciting access to the journalistic content of swissinfo.ch, against the background of a globally-changing media landscape.
