Using visuals to help tell your story

Visuals can be an important tool in storytelling.

The Social Science Research Network found that 65% of people are visual learners. Other studies have found that articles, tweets and posts with images get 94% more total views, and photos also increase engagement. On News Break, you are required to have at least one image in your article.

Woman taking a photo. (Athena/Pexels)

Here are some recommendations and requirements for including visuals in your stories:

Sourcing an image is required on our platform and captions are recommended. The caption should give a brief description of the image and the source should be formatted (John Smith/Unsplash). It is important to source and make sure you are using images cleared of copyright restrictions. This is not just for the potential legal repercussions, but also because just how you make money off of your writing, others rely on photography.

We realize sourcing images can be confusing. As a general rule, if you did not take the photo yourself or did not get permission to use it, you probably can't use it.

There are also a few places that should always be avoided:

• Newspapers, publications, media companies (they pay photojournalists and graphic designers for this work)
• Professional photographers
• Anything with a copyright or watermark

Here are a few places we suggest checking out for royalty-free images:

• Unsplash
• Pexels
• Pixabay
• Shopify Burst
• Library of Congress

While we require a downloaded image in your article to use as a thumbnail, you can also include embedded content. If you are struggling to find the royalty-free image you want of a certain place or person, you can embed appropriate images from twitter, instagram, maybe even a google map. Once you find and copy the embed code, go into your article on our Creator Portal and click the <> icon to paste the embed code inside.

Where to find embed codes:

• Instagram, click on the three dots to the right of the photo and click embed
• Twitter, click on the three dots on the top right of the tweet and select embed tweet
• Google Maps, once you search, select a location (address, city, etc) select the share icon on the right and click the embed a map tab, you can select the size you want the map to appear