Digital stories

What's a Digital Story?

It's usually a nonfiction story that contains a mixture of text, graphics, and video, and may have some interactive elements. It may or may not tell a story in a linear fashion. Intrigued? Try some of our suggestions below.

Don't forget to track your stories!

New York Times Multimedia

The New York Times produces some of the most intriguing and accessible digital stories. A few are highlighted below. You may also want to try out When Life Felt Normal: Your Pre-Pandemic Moments and other stories in their Multimedia section.

#ThisIs18

What did life look like for girls turning 18 in 2018? The New York Times gave young women photographers around the world an assignment: Show us 18 in your community. This is 18 — through girls’ eyes. This project was turned into a book.

Snow Fall: Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

This digital story about an avalanche in Wasthington state was groundbreaking when it came out in December 2012 and remains one of the most discussed and debated digital stories ever. Experience it for yourself!

Why is Simone Biles the World's Best Gymnast?

A blend of video, text and graphics to highlight just why Simone Biles is the gymnastics powerhouse she is. From the New York Times

114,00 Students in NYC are Homeless

Darnell is 8 and lives in a homeless shelter. Sandivell is 10 and lives in one bedroom with her mother and 4 brothers. She has moved seven times in five years. NYT Nov. 19, 2019


A Few More Great Digital Stories

Follow the Trail of a Garbage Truck

New York’s residential trash is hauled away by the city, but private companies collect trash thrown away by businesses. Every night, an army of private trucks zig-zag across the city, making hundreds of stops each. Facing far more dangerous conditions than city workers, these drivers work longer hours for less money. Follow one driver’s route in August 2016. From ProPublica

Supreme Law

Sort of a choose-your-own adventure featuring popular Canadian YouTubers delving into the Canadian history you never knew (um.... all of it?). Seriously, you get to pick what perspective you want to hear from: indiginous, prime minister, the West, women, and Quebec, and view background materials in a really cool clickable package.

The Boat

A 20 minute experience that adapts a story of a Vietnamese refugee who flees to Australia at the end of the Vietnam War, re-telling the story in an interactive graphic novel format.

Operation Nightwatch

Explore one of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Nightwatch" by Rembrandt. It's a painting full of secrets and stories. Who are those militia men? Where is Rembrandt hiding? Who is the girl? Through an interactive experience, unravel its secrets, find the hidden symbols, work out who carries the flag and learn how Rembrandt, after all those centuries, still manages to manipulate our gaze. Created to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's death by NTR TV channel and the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

Lessons from a Bloody Masterpiece

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was still a young artist when he completed “The Gross Clinic,” an in-action, up-to-the-minute depiction of the vanguard of American medicine that feels particularly relevant right now - plunges us into the bloody reality of the operating theater, celebrated as one of the most important paintings in American art history. Why such hatred then, and why such praise now? Let me try to show you, detail by detail