Masterclass (Webinar) of Laura Hertzfeld Storytelling for today & beyond : Immersive tools for building audience and community storytelling

“Storytelling for today & beyond: Immersive tools for building audience and community”. In this short talk and conversation starter, Laura Hertzfeld will showcase examples of immersive storytelling across journalism history and look at how learning new tools as our industry adapts to technological shifts can be applied across all types of stories and content platforms. We’ll look at examples of nonfiction storytelling from the AR and VR spaces in the past several years as well as dive into the costs and opportunities of creating content on emerging platforms. Laura will also discuss what creating in AR/VR can teach us about approaching AI initiatives in journalism.

Laura Hertzfeld is an Emmy-winning writer, editor, and producer with over 15 years experience in news and entertainment, helping media brands develop online content, engagement, and distribution strategies. Most recently, she was the first director of cross-platform collaboration at Boston’s NPR station, WBUR. Prior to that, she ran the XR Partner Program at Yahoo RYOT Studio (formerly Verizon Media Group). Laura is a mentor for the current cohort of New Inc artists at the New Museum in New York City. As a 2019 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, Laura completed research on the intersection of art, immersive technology, and journalism. This work built off her role as director of Journalism 360, an immersive storytelling initiative supported by Google News Lab and Knight Foundation. Laura has been a featured speaker on immersive storytelling at SXSW, AWE, Digital Hollywood, Art Table, and more. She also worked in broadcast and digital media as a senior producer on “Larry King Now” and at NBC won an Emmy for her work on digital coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Laura started her career on the original Yahoo News team and was an editor at Entertainment Weekly/EW.com and PBS.org. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, she has reported on politics, business, entertainment, and lifestyle topics at a variety of outlets, including Here & Now, NPR, PBS, and Los Angeles Magazine.