Tout adds new dimension to Salt Lake Tribune news coverage

When members of Utah's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community shared stories about discrimination and mistreatment with state lawmakers Wednesday, Sen. Luz Robles responded with emotion.

A photo at sltrib.com and in The Salt Lake Tribune's print edition shows the Salt Lake City Democrat dabbing at her eyes as she called on fellow politicians to end their silence on the issue of bias.

Even better, you could see and hear her tearful response in a Tout video reporter Lindsay Whitehurst shot at the event.

Tout is a new tool Salt Lake Tribune journalists are using to add a valuable visual dimension to their reporting.

Reporters and photographers typically use mobile phones to shoot these videos, which are 45 seconds or less in length. Tout videos display in a box on the left of the sltrib.com home page. We embed them in related stories.

Readers also may access them using Tout's apps for iPhone or Android, or on the social medium's website, www.tout.com, where they'll also see submissions from other news organizations and individuals.

The Salt Lake Tribune has a special Tout channel readers may follow and use to reply with video comments on our posts.

Currently, 26 Tribune staffers' work is part of our channel. Eventually, every journalist will be represented.

We often tell reporters to "show, not tell" readers what happened or is happening.

In some instances, Tout may be the best way to accomplish that goal.