Using Timelines in Stories: Chronology, Context, Clarification, Cause-and-Effect, Patterns/Trends, Retrospective/Biography, Navigation

- Chronology: Describing a series of events minute by minute, day by day, year by year
- Clarification: Making complex or ongoing issues easier to understand
- Context: How does the current event fit into a bigger picture?
- Cause and effect: What series of smaller events has led to this big news story?
- Patterns/Trends/Turning Point: Using past events to show larger patterns or what the future might hold.
- Retrospective/Biography: Plotting the milestones of a life.
- Navigation: Using time as a device for navigating a narrative.

Chronology of events:
Reuters: Times of Crisis – 365 days
ABC: Black Saturday – 24 hours

Clarification/Context/Cause-Effect
Arab Spring

Patterns/Trends/Turning Point
Battling Infectious Diseases in the 20th Century: The Impact of Vaccines
Top World Cup Players on Facebook, Day by Day
Inaugural Words

How something works:
A Day’s Work, Four Days’ Pay
Tell-all telephone

Biographical timelines:
Timeline of Osama bin Laden’s Life
Nelson Mandela

Narratives navigation:
NFB: This Land
Whale Hunt

Styles: Live Blog, Interactive, Infographics

Charlie Hebdo timeline: how events have unfolded
Largest Bankruptcies

Process

Should I include a timeline in my story?

- Does your story contain a complex series of events that might be better told through a timeline?
- Is there a compelling historical component to your piece?
- Are there key milestones that will show how past events have caused or led to this event?
- Are you doing a profile where a retrospective timeline is appropriate?
- Is the future of an issue the point of your story and would a timeline help suggest trends, future directions?
- Will putting your reporting in a timeline help you explore the issue or help you structure the piece?
- What is the goal of my timeline? Is it complementary or redundant?
- What is the logical breakdown of my timeline: days, weeks, years?

Tools

Tool 1: TimelineJS
DOWNLOAD DEMO SCRIPT

View complete demo timeline

- It has built in support for: Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Wikipedia, and SoundCloud.
- Pick stories that have a strong chronological narrative. It does not work well for stories that need to jump around in the timeline.
- Keep it short, and write each event as a part of a larger narrative.
- Include events that build up to major occurrences. Not just the major events.