Sky News mapping breaking flood stories

Posted by Martin Stabe on 26 June 2007 at 15:53
Tags: Google Maps, Journalism, Mashups, Puffbox, mapping, skynews, video

NewsMap, the newsroom Google Maps mashup-maker that web consultancy Puffbox produced for Sky News, is getting a chance to prove its utility for presenting stories and user-submitted material under the breaking news conditions that it was designed for.

As Puffbox boss Simon Dickson highlights over on his blog, Sky News had today using the tool to plot its stories about the flooding in Yorkshire onto a map.

The Sky map includes text stories and user-submitted photographs, each plotted to the location they describe in the area around Sheffield, and triggers pop-up windows of Sky’s television coverage from the scene.

There will be more on how NewsMap works in the Explainer section of week’s Press Gazette magazine.

Update: The Star in Sheffield has been working hard to cover the biggest story in the city for years. Editor Alan Powell and many of his staff have worked a 24-hour shift, Holdthefrontpage.co.uk reported. The paper’s web site was being updated as late as 3am last night, and included a dozen stories about the flood that has so far claimed two lives in the area.

Tags: Google Maps, Journalism, Mashups, Puffbox, mapping, skynews, video