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Multimedia journalism
BBC’s “Dimensions” overlays geographic data of large-scale events on your region
Many times I struggle to comprehend the magnitude of an event, such as the flooding in Pakistan. News reports state that the flooding has affected one-fifth of the country – well, is that a lot or a little? In attempt to answer this question, Berg and BBC producers developed “Dimensions” to help users visualize the scale of major events. By overlaying the affected area in relation to my zip code, I can now see that the flooding stretches from Orlando, FL, to New York City, NY. Now that I can directly compare the size of the flooding to roughly U.S.’ east coast, I can say for certainty that flooding in one-fifth of Pakistan is a huge issue!
Using multimedia to dispel stereotypes in “Colorful but Colorblind”
Less than a month ago, I featured “My Story, My Goal,” a multimedia project by University of Miami students about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Low and behold, they have already launched their next project “Colorful but Colorblind: Roma Beyond Stereotypes.” The goal of this project is “aimed at remedying anti-Roma stereotyping through the creative use of multimedia in reporting minority issues in new member states of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) and internationally.” Talk about tackling difficult topics with the vast possibilities of multimedia!
USA Today launches multimedia special marking five years since Hurricane Katrina
USA Today recently launched a site specifically designed for the iPad looking back on Katrina five years later. In it, they combined videos, panoramas, maps, interactive graphics, and more. With more than 20 people involved in the project, the end product is impressive to say the least.
Exploring Soul – Ohio University’s 2010 Soul of Athens
An impressive array of student-run multimedia projects have hit the internet in recent years and one of the most well-known is Ohio University’s Soul of Athens. Now in its fourth year, the 2010 iteration has recently been released and (II) asked me to take a look.
UNC students launch 2010 multimedia stories for “Powering a Nation” website
Twelve students at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill spent their summers working tirelessly on stories about energy issues in America as a part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education known as News21. UNC is one of eight schools participating in this initiative and I am proud to say that I was honored to be a part of the UNC team. We recently launched our stories about topics such as the BP oil spill and the nation’s nuclear controversy and I would love to hear your feedback on our work!
University of Miami students personify United Nations Millennium Development Goals in documentary project “My Story, My Goal”
In an effort to give voices to those targeted by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, executive producers Rich Beckman and Tom Kennedy sent 14 young journalists from the University of Miami around the world with a mission to encapsulate arguably the most complex and ambitious humanitarian feats of our lifetime. With only two weeks in the field to adequately document the situation, seven teams of two Miami storytellers partnered with students at partner universities to collaborate on the research, filming and translations of each story for the project “My Story, My Goal.” “This was a truly international cooperation of students of all ages coming together to tell what they as native citizens believed was an important story in their home country,” student Lauren Santa Cruz wrote me.
Critiquing MSNBC’s website redesign – is bigger always better?
I was recently notified about MSNBC’s major overhaul with their digital presence so I decided to check it out. I will be upfront in disclosing that I do not read MSNBC so I am mainly curious to hear from the web designers, UI specialists, usability experts and loyal MSNBC readers out there who can provide their feedback regarding the site changes. As Creative Director Ashley Wells (and former Innovative Individual) stated, “We’ve made some big changes to our stories. Bigger pictures. Bigger video. Bigger text. Combined on a page, they tell bigger stories.” So, let’s dissect these changes and determine for ourselves if they succeeded in their goals.
Syracuse University students build interactive video panorama and iPhone app in Syracuse Diners website
While at Roanoke.com, my colleague Seth Gitner and I were always interested in attempting an interactive panorama where a video clip was embedded within a panorama. Needless to say, it never happened. But, Seth went on to teach at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and I’m happy to see that his students successfully produced one for their latest multimedia project, Syracuse Diners, as well as built a database of diners using Ruby on Rails, an iPhone app and much more. Looks like we’ve got some programmers on our hands up in Syracuse!
Wall Street Journal utilizes motion graphics to illustrate China’s housing market
Lam Thuy Vo, multimedia editor at The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, recently emailed me about a multimedia project they have been working on about China’s housing market. They incorporated simple motion graphics to explain China’s complex housing market, as well as produced a variety of other video profiles, graphics, and timeline of events. I particularly appreciated the introductory motion graphic video since I was unfamiliar with the topic. While I see a couple areas for improvement in terms of the information design of the package, there are several great aspects of the site that are well worth your time.
France 24′s “The Fall of the Wall” web documentary: storytelling falls short despite interactive interface
Adam Westbrook recently alerted me about France 24 and Tandem Production Berlin’s latest web documentary titled “The Fall of the Wall,” and I was eager to check it out after Adam prefaced the link by “lots of good interactivity but poor on the storytelling.” Did this mean that they prioritized functionality over content? I had to go check it out for myself and low and behold, I actually agree with Adam’s assessment – they succeeded in making an interactive web documentary, but unfortunately the actual story content was quite underwhelming.
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