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Charticles

I've heard of them, but never saw one

[ 1 ]

I've been doing them for years, but I thought they were called infographics

46%

[ 12 ]

I've never heard of them

50%

[ 13 ]

Total Votes : 26

Results will be visible after the poll expires

Poll expires in :

ChrisSoprych Offline

Visual Guru

Joined: 24 Mar 2004

Total posts: 56

Location: Elgin, IL

Age: 35

Gender: Male

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:38 pm

I've notice this term being thrown around the industry lately; I've been an infographics guy for ten years but I'm not sure I've done one of these puppies.

What exactly is a charticle?
Who coined the phrase?
Could you please post some examples?

Richard Curtis Offline

Professor

Joined: 17 Oct 2004

Total posts: 49

Gender: Unknown

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:53 pm

ChrisSoprych wrote::

Read Edward Tufte's book(s). I'm fairly certain he was the first to use the term.

ChrisSoprych Offline

Visual Guru

Joined: 24 Mar 2004

Total posts: 56

Location: Elgin, IL

Age: 35

Gender: Male

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:11 pm

I just paged through the indexes of the three Tufte's books I own, with no luck. I guess that makes two of us who don't know what a charticle is. Well, three if you include Edward Tufte.

Kristin

Action Figure

Joined: 22 Mar 2005

Total posts: 25

Location: St. Petersburg, FL

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:54 pm

I've been told that USA Today is the leader in charticles, and we used several examples from them when we started doing them as charticles at the Post-Gazette. I'm still trying to get a grasp on them, but it's a lot like a graphic ... although I find it easier to design in InDesign than Freehand or Illustrator ... and we put a lot of art in it (usually it's supposed to have something like a 6-column wide, 4-inch deep secondary presence on the cover of our features section) ... with about a paragraph of text per item. the first one we did was about creepy movie characters (for Halloween) and we did an abridged version of a charticle for Harry Potter movie merchandise. The USA Today example I remember was about celebrity couples (Simpson/Lachey, Zellwegger/Chesney, etc.). It's a relaxed infographic with a lot of space (in theory) and art ... but still hard to describe.

Josh Awtry Offline

VizEds Moderator

Joined: 11 May 2004

Total posts: 373

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:43 pm

Here in Salt Lake, we do much charticle.

I'd been doing them for years, and using the term "non-linear storytelling" -- in part because it made me sound smart, and in part because I wanted to encourage reporters that they could still convey information in it (hence the storytelling).

Here's a link to an oldish Poynter article where Chip Scanlan and I talked about it. I didn't want to use the term infographic, because there's not always much "graphic" to it, and wanted to save the term for special graphics. I've also heard the term "chunky text" (I think Patty Cox in St. Pete sold me on that one).

At the Salt Lake Tribune, charticle is the nom de plume of these things, so I rode along with it. I think Tufte coined it, and Tribune staffers picked it up after a visit by Pegie Stark Adam before I got here.

Call it whatever you want, it's a great reader service. It allows readers to pick up the pieces they want and throw out the rest. I usually tell stubborn reporters that it's like a paragraph indent on super steroids: both are designed to allow readers a place back in if they stop reading, but the charticle/nonlinear story/chunky text piece can do that a lot more effectively in a lot of cases.

(In case you can't tell, I'm a big proponent of this type of storytelling. If the reporter doesn't have a thrilling narrative to wow the readers with, this type of work at least enables the clear flow of information.)

SGriffin

Secret Agent

Joined: 03 Oct 2004

Total posts: 97

Location: Waterbury, Conn.

Gender: Male

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:20 pm

We had a "charticle" a short while ago that was about a dozen baseball-card style bios of the possible candidates for mayor in Waterbury for the next election. It just had a brief intro and then the cards. It got pretty good response because lots of people said they were amused by one at the bottom, which proves they read them all. At the bottom was our former governor, a Waterbury native, who is due out of prison this month.
Also interesting/ironic is the fact that we bumped one potential candidate to get an even number. A few weeks later he was arrested.

charles apple Offline

Superhero

Joined: 09 Mar 2004

Total posts: 3721

Location: Norfolk, Virginia

Age: 46

Gender: Male

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:47 pm

I had a charticle once. Luckily, it was benign. They burned it off. Left a tiny scar. Wanna see?

"Chunky text" is the term I'm more familiar with. Mostly, because I worship at the Ron altar.

Sara Reeves Offline

Maestro

Joined: 25 Jun 2004

Total posts: 346

Location: Orlando Sentinel

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:05 pm

you need a poll option for "i use charicles all the time and i call them charticles"

here at the sentinel we consider a charticle when all the elements of a story are contained within one graphic article. there is not a traditional story with a jump.

lenarichards Offline

Action Figure

Joined: 04 Oct 2005

Total posts: 29

Location: Asheville, N.C.

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:11 am

Sara Reeves wrote::

Exactly. We rarely do them but we call them that ever since USA TODAY started doing lots of them. It's the way, I think, we're trying to go but it's difficult for reporters to retrain their mind to write in blocks instead of paragraphs. I like them better, personally. Easier to read and gives you everything you need to know right there.

Lucritia Edgerton Offline

Secret Agent

Joined: 01 Sep 2004

Total posts: 97

Location: Austin American Statesman

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:51 pm

Here we call some of these story-telling devices, creating a fun liitle acronym: STD.

I'm still fuzzy on what the difference is between infographic and charticle. And how does the definition of graphic column come in?

Hi, I'm Lucritia, and I'm here to complicate things. Evil or Very Mad