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The graphic novel format can help journalists cover sensitive or traumatic events in a more personal way, and illustrations can be used to grant an interviewee anonymity. But how is the storytelling process different for this medium?

Multimedia journalist Blake C. Nelson highlights seven questions to ask before getting started with comics journalism in this post on Poynter, covering what reporters should know about the format, aesthetic and ethical issues that might arise, among other challenges.

He points out that you should carefully consider how you will illustrate visual details that are missing from your story, and remember that the way you draw the facial expression of a person who is speaking "can really change the reader's perception" about what they are quoted as saying.

We still have a few tickets left for newsrewired on 22 November, where Marc Ellison, freelance photo- and videojournalist, will be giving a workshop on graphic novel journalism, covering best practices for working with this medium, as well as how to pitch and write proposals to fund this type of stories.

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