![\"Alyssa](\"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Alyssa-Burkett.jpg\")
<\/a>In the case of No Hard Feelings<\/i><\/a>, what the audience experiences with each swipe or tap are themes of quest, honesty and discovery. They underpin the story of young band members and at the same time explain choices the storyteller made in her own life.<\/p>\n\u201cI just tell it the way I\u2019m seeing it,\u201d said Alyssa Burkett<\/strong> as she described her immersion into the lives of local bands in Flagstaff that resulted in an award-winning package of text, video and photos. The digital format was provided by the Atavist, a publisher whose iPad app offers various combinations of long-form journalism, photographic essays and video as a platform for viewers seeking a deeper journey into a topic.<\/p>\n What Burkett saw, captured and edited brought the Northern Arizona University journalism student a grand prize in the Digital Storymakers contest<\/a>, sponsored by Atavist and the Pearson Foundation, which drew entries from students at elite universities across the country.<\/p>\n Burkett is traveling, expenses paid, to New York City to meet other contest winners and editors from The<\/i> New York Times<\/i> and Wall Street Journal<\/i>. While there, she will participate in a two-day storytelling boot camp with Atavist editors. Her award includes a cash prize of $5,000, and her work, and two entries by four of her classmates<\/a>, will be featured in an upcoming digital publication by Atavist.<\/p>\n Yet the story told by Burkett sets its sights far from glitter and glamor, instead focusing a journalistic lens in garages and modest living rooms in Flagstaff, where bands form and perform, create and break up, mostly outside the view of college students and tourists.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like there are stories like this that focus on people who don\u2019t have very much,\u201d Burkett said in explaining her motivation to capture such real-life situations. \u201cThey\u2019re not famous or widely known. It makes me feel good, like I can achieve something because these people are achieving something.\u201d<\/p>\n Burkett said she spent years on the project, which began as a request by some band members to take their photos. In the process, she became \u201cpart of their circle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be able to form those relationships and not just be a fly on the wall, like a lot of journalists are,\u201d Burkett said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you get the most out of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n That philosophy was nurtured throughout Burkett\u2019s own journey from a senior project in high school about censorship in journalism, to her entry into the study of print journalism at NAU and finally to a production class that steered her to the unvarnished honesty of photojournalism.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to dig deeper and hang out with people who were real and experienced emotion,\u201d Burkett said. \u00a0She recalled her origins in Nogales, Ariz., a place that \u201cdoesn\u2019t allow people to go very far.\u201d So she went as far as she could while staying in Arizona, and landed at NAU. There, evolving technology added a stream to the confluence of storytelling opportunities.<\/p>\n Burkett said she\u2019s grateful for the platform offered by the Atavist app. \u201cHonestly, I have no idea how else I would have been able to share this story with people. It\u2019s just a really nice way to have it all laid out for you.\u201d<\/p>\n While working full time and finishing a few classes at NAU to graduate, Burkett plans to continue experiencing the local arts scene and develop more story ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly what I wanted to do,\u201d Burkett said. \u201cI\u2019ll follow different artists and different types of artists\u2014anybody who\u2019s willing to share why they create and how they live.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"