Project Description
Our Story Continues
My senior year I took a class entitled “Media Hub”, which focuses on creating professional level journalism packages for local news outlets. When I first entered the class, I realized that an interactive multimedia student’s role was creating small graphs and slideshows to embed within the stories, or so I thought.
Then I went to the Online News Association Conference where I heard from incredible people who all stepped outside their boundaries as journalist to get where they are now. The best advice I received was simple and short from the VP of Google News, “make bold moves,” but it forever changed the way I took on projects.
I went to my professor with the idea of Our Story Continues, a news story about women in tech that features an interactive map for readers to add their own story. It took two months, and my professors seemed very concerned that we wouldn’t pull it off. Oh, and by we I mean my amazing teammates Kelsey and Sam. Sam wrote the story and Kelsey helped us promote it to local high schools/colleges.
On December 5th, the site went live, and within 6 days we had well over 50 women write their own story on the site.
The site is no longer live, but below is the praise from around the world that the site received.
Check out some of the tweets about the site:
Because we like stories...check out https://t.co/eq61teNyWO by @UNC undergrad @madisonlynwalls. Inspiration and resource: #VT #womenintech get yourselves on this map! #OurStoryContinues #ChangeTheStoryVT
— Change The Story VT (@ChangeStoryVT) December 24, 2017
Cool journalism/design experiment by undergrad @madisonlynwalls lets women tell their own stories about experiences with sexism in tech https://t.co/eZw0Ml0kVn
— Christopher Mims 🎆 (@mims) December 14, 2017
A cool project from an aspiring journalist. https://t.co/eZEr1sSYeJ
— Ina Fried (@inafried) December 11, 2017
Awesome journalism project by @madisonlynwalls #goHeels https://t.co/RIl5Icd5pD
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) December 12, 2017
A @unc_mediahub student, @madisonlynwalls, created an immersive piece asking women in tech to share their stories. It took off. Here is how it happened. https://t.co/IxjxFWAq65
— John Robinson (@johnrobinson) December 27, 2017
Interesting effort from UNC Chapel Hill student @madisonlynwalls -- a site called Our Story Continues, where women in tech can tell their own stories about discrimination and harassment https://t.co/JEBDFrTxJD
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) December 11, 2017
As a Blue Devil, I don’t often endorse Tar Heels, but this site created by @madisonlynwalls for “shar[ing] the struggles and strengths of women in the tech” is critical and well done: https://t.co/nTIkIcL4IT
— Adam Besvinick (@Besvinick) December 11, 2017
Brilliant work by @UNCMJschool @unc_mediahub students @sampaisley63 and @madisonlynwalls reporting on how women are challenging the 'bro culture' in tech industry. And you can share your own story, as many have
— Richard T. Griffiths (@griffiths) December 7, 2017
already done in just 2 days. https://t.co/cICJ2Afg7R
Women — esp women in tech — check this out. (You know who would think this is cool: @karliekloss) 👊🏻 https://t.co/uLskw3x8Pn
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) December 12, 2017
This is cool. https://t.co/EDVEpW5BIB
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 13, 2017
@unicorn this is very cool. https://t.co/558Xwt10hf
— Andrew Matranga 📰 (@andrewmatranga) December 12, 2017
This is amazing and so important. Congrats. Let us know how we can help!
— Kathy Savitt (@ksavitt) December 13, 2017
Media Hub Website
During my time in the class, I got the chance to work on many projects across different platforms. In a story on Windsor flooding, I produced an interactive data visualization and took photos for the piece. For a story on affordable housing, I got the chance to create 360 video. One of my favorite projects was recreating the WordPress theme that the site lived on. To see the website, click the button below.