Multimedia journalism

Multimedia reviews from fresh eyes

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UNC professors Laura Ruel and Don Wittekind recently notified me about a new assignment they gave their “Intro to Multimedia” students this year, which I have thoroughly enjoyed checking out. Each student is required to find a multimedia project to critique, and their write-ups are being posted on the class Website for everyone to read. The reviews are honest and insightful, and surely a big help to producers who are curious to learn how an average user views their projects.

Don noted that these reviews are especially interesting because their students are just beginning their multimedia education, and therefore view presentations the way an average user would rather than a skilled and biased producer. One student reviewed British journalist and blogger Adam Westbrook’s recent project, “One Week in Iraq.” His response proves that these critiques are incredibly helpful for us: “I didn’t even think of navigation when I made that, it was more about the videos, which they didn’t watch by the looks of things!”

I also got the chance to read a student’s review on my “Honduras and the Hidden Hunger” project, which was somewhat startling. The student noted, “Some of the weaknesses of the site are the inability of the user to find how to navigate back to the homepage. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find the home link.” Either he completely missed the “Stories | About | Home” navigation at the top, or I incorrectly assumed that users would know to look for a home button at both the top and bottom of the site, as well as know to click the back button. Clearly, concepts that are obvious to me as the producer are not quite as obvious to a novice!

Below is a partial list of student reviews. More are posted each week, so make sure to bookmark their site review page for future reference. Even if they didn’t cover one of your projects, I encourage you to take some time to read through them and think about how you can utilize their advice to improve your future projects.

Shifting religious identities | USAToday
Lyndon Wade
Mapping Memory | National Geographic
Behind the Veil (Take 1) | Globe&Mail
Behind the Veil (Take 2) | Globe&Mail
One Week in Iraq | Adam Westbrook
Herb and Dorothy | PBS
Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways | NYTimes
100 Days | LA Times
Museum of Beauty
London 2012 Interactive Map
Turbo Gene
An Architectural View | CourierPostOnline
Iran’s nuclear programme | The Guardian
Global Climate Change | NASA
Remember Me | Concord Monitor
Electric Dreams | BBC
Murder: New York City | NYTimes
Water Life
In Shadows | Chris Carmichael
Going to the End of the Line | NYTimes
Federer’s Footwork: Artful and Efficient | NYTimes
Tennis’ sonic boom | USAToday
Honduras and the Hidden Hunger | Tracy Boyer
*Living with Less: The human side of the global recession | NYTimes
*Where Children Find Hope | Detroit Free Press
*How Different Groups Spend Their Day | NYTimes
*Living Galapagos | UNC-Chapel Hill
*Fixing D.C.’s Schools | WashingtonPost
*Innovation Portfolio | NYTimes

* Deep link has not been provided and therefore you may need to scroll down the linked page to find the review.

Other posts that might interest you:

• UNC launches News21 multimedia project
• UNC launches latest multimedia project, “Living Galapagos”
• Special Olympics uses twitter, multimedia to document Winter Games

© 10 November 2009 Innovative Interactivity.