Let me tell you a story.
It’s really at the heart of what we do as journalists. Whether it’s a short summation of facts, an investigative piece on corruption or wrongdoing, or a feature on someone in our community, we tell stories.
While what we do has remained the same, how we do it has not. Today’s Personal Journeys feature in Living & Arts is a prime example of that.
Atlanta’s Carolyn Cook, an acclaimed local theater actress, is helping to take care of her mother, who has dementia. Carolyn’s mother did the same for her own mother. It’s a legacy that Carolyn, who has a 17-year-old daughter, confronts in life and in a forthcoming play. Staff writer Jill Vejnoska tells their story beautifully. But that is not where the story ends.
Carolyn is far from alone in caring for a loved one with dementia. In 2012, more than 15 million Americans provided unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, according to the Alzheimer’s Association 2013 report. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, and the nation is expected to experience a dramatic surge in Alzheimer’s in the coming decades as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age.
With that breathtaking information, we took the opportunity to take a deeper look into this topic and present it digitally in a way we haven’t before. We have created a dynamic, layered presentation of the original text, with multiple photographs, information on Alzheimer’s studies and statistics on dementia. The online presentation also includes Emory University’s role on the front line in the battle against Alzheimer’s, an explanation of what happens to the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient over five, 10 and 20 or more years, and, perhaps most engaging of all, video.
When we first approached this project, we didn’t know what we would get on video, but the trust between multimedia photojournalist Ben Gray and Carolyn and her family was crucial to what subscribers will see on MyAJC.com. Carolyn was gracious enough to open up her life to us, and Ben was cognizant of that over the nearly five months of taping.
“With this, the biggest balancing act was respecting their time, knowing that Carolyn was really juggling her life, her daughter and spending time with her mom,” Ben said. “It was really fluid.”
“The part that took the most finesse, I guess, was knowing when to dip in and respecting when she was busy … balancing between wanting to capture the right moment, but not being burdensome to them.”
With video, subscribers will see Carolyn’s expression when she talks about her fear of the possibility of her daughter becoming her caregiver; see the tenderness and humor between Carolyn and her mother; and witness the poise of Carolyn’s 17-year-old daughter, Emily, who has been watching her mother care for her grandmother, knowing the legacy of their family and what it could mean for her future.
The Internet continues to open up new and dynamic ways to present stories and engage with our readers. The majority of us have computers, and more and more of us have some type of portable device — smartphone, tablet, laptop. As more of you go online and mobile, we in the news industry do the same — and we want to give you something special.
“Photo essays, videos and interactives allow online users to interact with the content,” said Al Tompkins, the Poynter Institute’s senior faculty for broadcasting and online. “However you want to experience the story, we can provide it.”
We don't reserve video footage just for special projects, we offer on-the-scene sights and sounds of breaking news and exclusive interviews, such as the doctor who wore an Ebola protection suit at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to protest the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We were the only ones who had Dr. Gil Mobley on video, which we then shared with WSB-TV locally and other television news outlets and websites across the country.
We also offer behind-the-scenes video explanations on investigative stories, such as a recent Sunday story by Cobb County watchdog reporter Dan Klepal, who obtained emails from the private and county email accounts of Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee that had not previously been disclosed. We asked for all documents, including email, related to the Braves move to Cobb the day after the November announcement, but the emails that apparently show Lee acted beyond his authority in hiring an attorney to negotiate with the Braves were not included then. We had to come back and ask for Braves discussions conducted on Lee's private email. Lee has repeatedly denied making the hire.
We also offer insight on unique content. Award-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich, in a recurring video segment, explains the creation of his cartoons featured in the paper, and multimedia photojournalists have shared with subscribers the stories behind their photographs, which we've done recently with John Spink's Ebola patient photo and Ben Gray's supermoon photo.
We capture video of life and events in metro Atlanta, such as the early look at Cirque du Soleil's latest show, "Amaluna," the three days of sold-out concerts by Atlanta rap duo OutKast and the otherworldliness of "TomorrowWorld."
Sports fans can find some pre- or post-game video interviews with coaches Mike Smith, Mark Richt, Fredi Gonzalez and others, as well as practice highlights.
With all that we do with video, we still tell stories.
So, if you will, please read Carolyn’s story and go online to MyAJC.com/memories to get to know her and her family better and find out more about Alzheimer’s disease.
While you’re online, follow the visuals team (photo and video) on Twitter (@ajcphotos, @ajcvideos) and like us on Facebook (AJC videos, AJC photos). As always, we want to hear your feedback.
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