14 Best Tools For Multimedia Journalism For Journalists

Are you looking for the best tools for multimedia journalism? Discover what you need to enhance your multimedia journalism skills.

Writing a journalistic piece using different media elements can be a significant challenge. Many journalists are asked to create articles that include statistics, graphs, charts, images, video clips, and written pieces. Creating and sourcing each element of your article can be tricky, but using the right tools can help with this challenging task. Not only can sourcing the correct tools help you create media elements, but some tools can also help you when compiling each element into one cohesive piece.

So what are some of the top tools you should use? Before deciding, you must consider each option’s features, benefits, drawbacks, and use cases.

Do you have multiple audio, video, or text clips that link to each other? If so, then ThingLink could be helpful. This is an image annotation tool. You can place markers on your images, and when you click them, you can play or display various audio, video, and text clips. It is effortless to use, and it is a versatile option.

You might also find our round-up of the best books on investigative journalism helpful.

If you want people to view your work, you need to know what is already ranking well. Answer The Public is a tool that will show you the top search results from various search engines with the click of a button. That way, you can learn more about what you need to do to stand out from the crowd.

If charts and graphs are integral to your journalism, then you could benefit from DataVisu.al. The aesthetic appearance of your charts matters, and DataVisu.al helps you customize the appearance of your chart. The free plan is very limited in terms of its resolution, but the premium version has plenty of options.

After a long day, you probably don’t want to listen to your interviews and type them out. However, you may want to explore this option if you have resources available. For example, you can play your interview or video and allow Rev to transcribe it. That way, you can do your laundry or cook dinner even as you get your interviews transcribed.

Read our Rev review to learn more

You must have a strong headline if you have an idea for a story. What happens if you have issues coming up with that headline? BuzzSumo can help you. You need to figure out what headlines are performing well, and BuzzSumo will show you some of the top options already available.

Canva is an excellent service that can help you create infographics, presentations, pictures, and other multimedia options. There are free templates available that can help you design your graphics, and many features are free. Because it does a lot of the work for you, it is great for people who don’t have a lot of experience with graphic design.

If you want to make a name for yourself, you need a website. But, you also need a website that can handle your graphics. That is where WordPress can be helpful. You don’t need any coding knowledge to use this site, as all you have to do is drag and drop your images and videos into place. Then, you will have a functional website in a few minutes. There are also plenty of plugins and widgets you can use to make your website that much better.

If you, or a team member, are working remotely, then you can benefit from Miro. Instead of emailing people back and forth, you can use this online whiteboard to share immediate feedback. You can also take advantage of digital sticky notes, flowcharts, and several other plugins.

Graphics come in many shapes and forms, and there are some situations where dictation can be helpful. Dragon dictation is one of the top options available, and you can use it to expedite your workflow. It is fast, accurate, easy to use, and can help you save a significant amount of time with voice commands.

If you have ever wanted an original template, you should look at Envato. This tool gives you access to a series of websites where you can purchase templates from professional artists. You can find website themes, background images for presentations, and even audio loops. Many students will sell their work here to make ends meet as they go to school. The cost varies depending on how many templates you purchase.

Klynt is a tool that you can install on your computer. You can use it to edit interactive videos. Essentially, this is a tool that you can use to provide viewers with options for what to do next. Then, they can choose what they want to happen. This is great for incorporating a bit of suspense into the story.

If you work with a lot of images and videos, you understand just how much of a problem that can be to have a lot of tabs open. If you are having trouble keeping track of everything, Toby can help you. You can create groups or collections of tabs with a graphical interface that allows you to drag and drop links into various areas. Then, you can find your tabs much more quickly, streamlining your workflow.

If you use many images, you might be curious about how accurate they are. TinEye can help you do that. Unfortunately, many people have become vulnerable to fake news, and this is an image search engine that will let you know when and where an image was first used. Essentially, it creates a digital fingerprint of the image and matches it to other indexed images.

No matter what type of journalist you are, it is important for you to produce a professional, finished product. Grammarly helps you proofread and check for plagiarism, no matter where the text is located. This includes emails, word documents, social media posts, websites, and more. Therefore, it is the perfect option for ensuring that your information is plagiarism-free and grammatically correct.

Read our Grammarly review to learn more

Selection Criteria

Some of the factors we considered when picking our tools include:

• I have carefully considered how multimedia journalists would use each of these individual tools.
• I have considered the availability of customizable features included in each software.
• I have considered the tool’s price and compared it to the value for the money.

Then, we used that information to compile the list above.

Why You Can Trust Me

We understand that there are a lot of options available, and some of the reasons why you can trust us include:

• We have personally tried all the tools on this list.
• We considered the reviews from third parties, combined them with the opinions of professional journalists, and put together the list above.
• We have tremendous experience working with numerous tools, and we used them to rank the list above.

Consider trying out a few of these tools to expedite your multimedia journalism.

FAQs on The Best Tools for Multimedia Journalism