“In news, it’s important to never panic.”
Arielle Ray, a Video Journalist and Motion Graphics Specialist at The Wall Street Journal, knows how hectic the world of news media can be. But through years of covering a wide variety of projects, she’s learned to solve any problem that comes her way. “I’ve worked with so many people and so many topics,” she says, “I can troubleshoot anything.”
And it’s not surprising that her experience comes in handy; video journalism is no easy task. When taking on a long term project, she summarizes her process: “I have to get the story, write a script for it, send that back and forth with managing editors and reporters, then decide what I want the visual to be.”
But all the hard work pays off; each video is unique and brings to life Arielle’s creative vision.
Her talent is versatile. She’s visualized topics ranging from E. coli, to The Federal Reserve’s techniques for raising interest rates, to hydrogen bombs, to Obamacare. She especially enjoyed one of her recent projects, a video exploring the characters and rap lyrics in Broadway’s “Hamilton.”
Another favorite project of hers was a video addressing the question “Should Mosquitoes Be Wiped Off the Planet?” This intriguing project gave her the opportunity to animate archival illustrations.
Arielle began as a Motion Graphics Intern at The Wall Street Journal in September of 2014. However, she didn’t always know her passion for visual journalism would take her there. While at the University of Miami, her first infographics class led her to an important realization. She says, ‘I knew that was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”
As one of News Media Alliance’s “Top 30 Under 30” award recipients, Arielle’s successes seem to surpass her years. But she doesn’t believe her young age gives her any advantage or disadvantage in her field. “The Journal respects what you can do,” she says.
And it’s true; her coworkers admire her work. Gerard Baker, the Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal, describes her as “a digital native with a keen interest in the most important topics of the day” and “a hybrid storyteller with a deep sense of intrigue and excitement about the future of the news.”
And her excitement is only growing as the news media industry undergoes changes and developments. She says, “People are getting excited about motion graphics video. We’ll see more and more of it, and that’s exciting for me.”
She embraces the innovations of a dynamic field by using graphics, sound design, video, animation, and illustration to tell stories in a remarkable way. Baker knows how valuable her work truly is; “she is creating a new vocabulary for digital storytelling.”
Follow Arielle on Twitter @arielle_designs
News Media Alliance announced the winners of its first “Top 30 Under 30” Awards program at mediaXchange 2016 in April, which honors young leaders working in every aspect of the news media who are contributing to the future success of the industry. Over the next several weeks we will feature profiles on the winners, highlighting their work and ideas, and how they’re helping the industry grow and evolve.
Emma Benninghoff is a student and former communications intern at News Media Alliance.
