Multimedia

Web sites use multimedia to better tell a story. In many cases, it works well. In some, it deters from the main objective of the story. Here are some reviews, using Mindy McAdams Chapter 2 advice.

Tornadoes Injure Hundreds in Virginia
This article, featured on AOL news includes the written article and also uses two slide shows of photos from a tornado and the ruins. It also has a video of the tornado. This is everything one could ask for when it comes to reporting a story. The slides change easily, and the multimedia is easy for a user to navigate. One criticism, however, is the way the page is laid out. I understand the ads on the side are necessary to pay for the site, but they take up a lot of space. The story begins with the article, then a slide show interrupts it. Then there's more article text, then another slide show. Then after more text, there's video. The user has to scroll down pretty far to get to the video, and because it's an interesting piece of multimedia, it should be easier to access. Also, the placement of the multimedia detracts from the article.

Madonnarama
I love Madonna, so I appreciated this article and the multimedia that went along with it. It was interesting because she hasn't been around in the media for a while, and she's making yet another comeback. Vanity Fair does a great job with multimedia as the magazine makes use of its photos. The article reads thoroughly with one photo in the middle. It doesn't detract from the article. It also gives a small photo that serves as an info box to bring the user to a slide show of Madonna photos from the 1980s to the present. The slide show itself is a great work of multimedia. The photos fade in and out well - there are many photos, and it shows a history of Madonna. Also, when the user brings the arrow to the side of the photo, the screen simulates a turning page. That is a really neat use of interactivity.

Time.com Multimedia Page
Time.com has a specific multimedia tab from its home page. From it, one can access great and interesting multimedia that, by themselves, serve as journalism.
One in particular, an interactive graphic on dictators, especially shows that point. This graphic shows where dictators go when they are in exile. When the user clicks on an X on the map, the rollover image shows a picture of the dictator, some information on him and an arrow that shows where he started as a dictator and points to where he moved to later. This type of multimedia takes research, and I like that it can stand alone as a piece of journalism.

Extra Web Behaviors

For this assignment, we have to show that we can do the following:
i) swap image ii) pop-up window iv) Play sound iv) Jump menus.

Web Is Not Print

Kodi and our guest speaker, Marie Shanahan of ctnow.com, are always saying that web is not print, and it's not.

One of the main differences is that it's interactive. Web users are interested not only in the story but what can prove the story. This means that they want audio feed, video clips and links. A simple print story cannot give you that. When writing for the Web, a reporter has to remember that users are constantly delineating from the story to read something else and keep stories short and to the point. They should also have interesting pictures and multi-media that relates to the story. They also have to write headlines that are search engine-friendly, meaning that it can be found through a search engine when a user types in key words. All of this is important, and it reflects a new type of on-the-go reader. This is what all readers are becoming, and news media has to cater to it to stay in business.

RSS Feeds

In class last Thursday, we learned about about RSS feeds. It was interesting because I knew what an RSS feed was, but I didn't know what it was called. Being an acronym for "really simple syndication" is the perfect description - because it is really simple. Although we were given instructions on how to make RSS feeds from scratch, we were also shown ways to do it through online servers. That made it really simple. However, we still have to know how to make them from scratch, so here it is:

First, RSS feeds have to be done through XML, which is different from HTML, which is what we're used to doing code on. However, XML is more interactive. Then you have to give it a channel and give it information on what you want to blog. Then you add the RSS links, close the channel and validate it. That should work. I look forward to putting this all on my site.