Multimedia Journalism

Manuela Corredor, Julian Betancourt and Tatiana González

PROBLEMATICS

Multimedia journalism is the combination of texts, images, sounds, videos, graphics and animations to tell a story from different angles.

CHARACTERISTICS

Stories are nonlinear:

Although the task of multimedia journalists include checking for accurate and precise information, the competition amongst journalists in a media that demands fast creation and publishing has lead journalist to publish first, check and correct after. This has generated problems of credibility to news sources that belong to multimedia journalist and has lead to the creation of fake news or unverified news.

Stories do not follow a rigidly structured single text, but instead, the user appeals to navigate through the different elements of a story. However, this doesn’t mean having text accompanied by a video clip that tells the same story.

The different parts of the story are told using different tools in a compelling and informative way: video, audio, photos, text, animation

"Get Ready for Your Career 2 | Western Reserve Public Media." Get Ready for Your Career 2 | Western Reserve Public Media. Web. 15 Feb. 2017. http://westernreservepublicmedia.org/careers2/multimedia-journalist.htm

Lerner, Sara. "Multimedia Storytelling: Learn the Secrets from Experts." Berkeley Advanced Media Institute. 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish/

Bull, Andy. "Welcome!" Multimedia Journalism. Web. 15 Feb. 2017. http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138792845/

Stories must have context and continuity:

Multimedia stories are accompanied by background information. To present this background, reporters may appeal to databases, timelines and infoboxes to show related stories, links to other resources and online forums. This allows the reader to understand the context of a story and related to other stories of the same topic.

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Continuity:

Multimedia stories must fit in the location where they were published, This means that in the same section where they were published, the user should be able to find the same type of stories.

This is generally achieved by creating subsections by subjects such as politics, economy, entertainment, fashion, etc.

Due to the fact that news companies have to receive economical revenue from journalism in order to work, and due to the fact that multimedia journalism revenue depends on the amount of people who see the news, the journalists have generated clickbait title news, a news story which attracts people with often misleading or exaggerated titles in order to attract viewers. Because people are accustomed to read the titles and not the articles, misleading information can be spread.

Types of stories that work as

multimedia journalism:

Not all stories can build up a multimedia story. Multimedia stories should be multi-dimensional. This means that they imply the use of different multimedia tools such as:

- Action for video

- A process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., “how this new surgery works”),

- Someone who can give quotes for video or audio

- Strong emotions for still photos and audio.

The tasks of a multimedia journalists:

- Collect information and investigate leads (Read documents, observe events and interview people)

- Think how to make the story interesting to the public.

- Make sure the information is accurate.

- Make stories available to the public through multiple medias: newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.

- Study the reaction of the people through social media.

- Being able to create a website.

- Think creatively.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/15/africa/gallery/nollywood-portraits/index.html

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MULTIMEDIA STORY AND A MULTIMEDIA SITE

CONTEXTUALIZATION

Multimedia journalism appears as a response to the emergence of Convergent Journalism, which was born with the evolvement of technology and digitality.

A multimedia site is a webpage that uses photos and videos in order to complement what is being said in text. However, the story can still be told and understood just with the text. This means, that the story is linear, and is not being told from its different angles through different ways.

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Even though the story includes images, these do not explore a different angle or part of the story from the one being told in the text.

The images only work as a complement - Visual help

It does not propose a different - innovative way of telling the story

CONTEXTUALIZATION

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2017/02/15/oh-deer-plane-hits-animal-forces-emergency-landing/97965778/

Today, the “available tools” are the ones provided by technology, which provides “a wide variety of possibilities to cover every aspect of an event”.

The story is only being told through a video that shows . It does nhow the news event occurred. It could have easily been told through a narration of the event as well.

It does not propose another view of the story or is used to explain, recall or interact with the audience

It is accompanied by a text that summarizes what the video shows.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

The most important element is understanding that the nature of the news event determines how many people should cover it and what form of media should be involved taking into account several elements such as the target audience and the length.

EXAMPLES

EXAMPLES

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32057601

The difference with photojournalism, is the fact that photojournalism is a technique used in multimedia journalism.

Photojournalism consists on the production, edition and release of images in order to tell a story. This means that the story being told must be simple and easy to understand, so it can be told only with an image. Meanwhile, multimedia journalism implies telling a story from its different angles, through different tools. This implies using elements such as images, videos, graphics, etc as a supporting tool to the main content (usually told in text) and not as the principal content such as in photojournalism. In this sense, the types of stories told with each one is different.

1. The story (Syrian refugees) is told through the use of several tools:

- Text

- Animated images

- Videos (animated and unanimated)

2. It involves the audience’s interaction through the use of a survey that guides the content appearance

3. It allows reading the content in several languages

4. It suggests related stories through links

5. It includes social network related content (hashtags)

DIFFERENCE WITH PHOTOJOURNALISM AND BROADCAST JOURNALISM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/health/ebola-effect-on-body/

http://www.usatoday.com/interactive/2680863/?csp=ipadinapp

1. It informs about a topic through an animated infographic with steps

2. It uses didactic images

3. It suggests other contents related to the topic

4. Besides informing, it gives an explanation of the topic

1. It presents the content through the use of an interactive map

2. It allows the user to select in which area of the map (subject) focus

3. It uses symbols and colors in order to make the texts be more didactic

4. It is divided by themes: It not a single-linear written story

On the other side, broadcast journalism consists on the release of news through electronic mediums such as radio, television and internet. This implies that reporters of this type of news focus only on one medium of release: TV, radio, internet. Meanwhile, multimedia journalism consists on choosing among several mediums of publication, allowing the use of more than one of them to publish a single story. However, the abilities required in multimedia journalism are also required in broadcasting, as it implies the use of tools such as video. Additionally, as broadcast journalism is usually instantaneous (when TV and radio is used), stories are generally narratable such as a chronological event. Meanwhile, multimedia journalism can tell other stories such as investigations, discoveries, processes, explanations, etc that last longer.

BAD MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM

vs

GOOD MEDIA JOURNALISM