Multimedia News Stories

My first news story is a video above which was part of the headline of an article on the CNN.com home page about a book being released full of letters from Americans to Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of JFK.

-I chose this story because the video is used as a headline. It was embedded on the CNN.com beneath a text headline that linked to the full article , but is not a part of the article itself.

- I would definitely embed videos as headlines for online articles. It is a chance for your readers to watch a short video to learn everything they need to and move on, or become interested in the topic and choose to read the article for more information.

The second article was a top story on Fox News, about the aftermath of the Chile earthquake. It includes a photo slide show of the damage done by the earthquake at the top of the article.

-I chose this story because it includes not just one, but several pictures of the damage done in Chile.

- I would use this technique because when a reporter is attempting to convey the true aftermath of something as devastating as an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, words are of little use. Adding several different pictures of various levels of damage done brings the reader right to Chile to see the devastation.

The third article on The New York Times web site is about the differences in how employed Americans spent their time versus how unemployed Americans spent in. Beside the text article, there is a link to an interactive graph that allows readers to breakdown the time spent into specific pieces and get more information that a quick article allows.

-I chose this article because it includes an interactive feature, which is something that is not as common as a slide show or video, but still useful.

-I would use this technique sparingly, probably only for soft news unless a hard news story begged for it. Not many users would be interested in investigating the information included in the article that closely, but it is a draw for those who are.