An Evening with Susan B. Goldberg

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications welcomed Susan B. Goldberg, the Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic on Wednesday evening. As the Editorial Director, Goldberg oversees and is responsible for all publishing ventures. Goldberg has been wildly successful since starting at National Geographic and has won the publication several awards, one being: the award for General Excellence, the highest award you can win in the journalism industry.

The presentation that Goldberg gave to the students and faculty of Newhouse was centered around creating and producing content that could be delivered across all social platforms. National Geographic has been around since 1988, so Goldberg had to think about: how to reinvent storytelling at NatGeo?

Goldberg knew this, there had to be a set of principles and guidelines that they must try and incorporate into all of their content and stories. The five principles of storytelling that drive NatGeo in their process that leads to a publication are: to make a difference, do what others can’t, be part of the conversation, act urgently and know who you are. At NatGeo, they try to hit at least one, if not several of these marks.

Throughout the presentation, Goldberg showed visuals of their content and stories to shed light on how they are using visuals to bring important stories to the public. I was surprised to hear that NatGeo Instagram has amassed over 100M followers. Goldberg said about this, “Instagram is so important because this is increasingly how people are going to see our professional journalism, this is the world we’re living in.”

The Instagram techniques that NatGeo uses are quite interesting. Unlike a lot of publications that stick to a specific number of photographers, they heavily rely on the work of freelancers to create the content being used and publicized. Goldberg thinks that the reason why their Instagram is so effective is that, “the authentic voice of these photographers come through to tell the stories.”

“The content needs to work across all [our] platforms, but it will play out in different ways. That’s one of the most important things we’re learning about modern storytelling in the modern age.” The first step in successfully understanding this is doing research, who is your audience? The answer will probably be different across each platform. Then, what story is going to resonate with that audience while still putting out the same content?

According to Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect by Regina M. Luttrell, “Located in the back part of your head, the visual cortex contributes to the reality around you. It can also process visuals an astounding 60,000 times faster than written language, essentially ‘speaking’ a separate language than justing using words yet decoding the meanings rapidly as well.”

We are all creatives. Whether we realize it or not, we have all created something. Take a look at your Camera Roll or your Instagram, those pictures you created tell a story. How can you use visuals to tell a story? What story do you want to tell? Who do you want to tell it to? These are the questions you should ask yourself the next time you pick up a camera.