Multimedia Assignment

I chose this article, this article, which had a separate link to a video next to the story headline and this article.

The first article, found on the USA Today website really uses multimedia ideas to the advantage of the consumer. There is a detailed article written beneath a collection of pictures that a reader can click through, which are presented as a time line of the financial meltdown and captioned with blurbs plotting the biggest pieces of the puzzle in the years the pictures represent.

Essentially, this approach to the use of pictures allows a reader to browse through the pictures to get a sense of the background information on which the article is based. The slide show is looking to the past, while the article discusses the present and looks ahead. This article really uses multimedia ideas to their fullest potential and I would use this method when discussing complex subjects that have unfolded over years.

The article on Fox News has a really inefficient approach to the implementation of multimedia techniques. Just the fact that the video and the article are two different links on the home page, and the video is not even linked in the full article really discourage readers to attempt to use both facets of the news coverage.

They do use the video to get a more emotional aspect of the story, since the interview is from a person on the board who obviously feels strongly about the article, but that makes the article redundant and unnecessary if a reader has already seen the video. Aside from the inherent benefits of using video (faster consumption of news, etc.) this multimedia presentation is ineffective and lazy.

The article on The Washington Post makes good use of a slide show as it discusses violent tension in Jamaica. The written article does well discussing the who, what, when, where, why and how of the situation and the slide show, which is posted right next to the text, shows clear pictures of the trauma which can be difficult to communicate through words.

Overall, this is a pretty generic use of multimedia. While the slide show adds to the reality of the events described, it does little to convey quick and important information to the reader.