The importance of multimedia in journalism
Writing compelling stories is no longer enough to engage audiences
Multimedia has become an exciting buzzword for journalists. Using non-written features on news websites is very much expected in 2020.
Online journalists are expected to be multi-talented; no longer just story investigators and writers, but graphic designers, audio recorders, videographers, photographers, presenters even. People that are able to go out and record non-written elements to help tell stories will be desired by modern newsrooms.
Multimedia storytelling is a difficult prospect to define, but it needs to be grabbed in order for it to revolutionise, rather than leave journalists behind. It makes news sites stand out.
Schibsted argue that:
the written language has been a temporary means of communication while we wait for technology that can process and derive meaning from the incredible amount of information that visual formats carry compared to written words.
That technology has been here for years, but these new elements need to enhance stories rather than divert from them.
What is multimodality?
Bearne and Wolstencroft offered this definition in 2007:
Multimodality involves the complex interweaving of word, image, gesture and movement, and sound, including speech. These can be combined in different ways and presented through a range of media.
EduResearch say when a text uses two or more modes it is a multimodal text. This applies to both offline and online texts. It encompasses most modern texts but manifests in multiple forms. With the rise of the internet though, multimedia has earned new meaning.
The most simple use of multimodality
Online tools have allowed anyone with basic digital skills to create multimodal designs in minutes.
Sites like Canva and Sketch can be accessed for free and provide thousands of pre-sized templates for multiple places on the web — from social media banners to recipe cards.
Even a dummy could do it (I made the Instagram story on the left in seconds).
They are a great way to save money on graphic designers, and engage an increasingly demanding audience.
Buzz Start Academy have a comprehensive list of similar online tools as explained at their Digital Skills event (I live tweeted from one last month).
Online journalists should familiarise themselves with these basic tools. Those who don’t risk being left behind and losing audience interest.
A high profile multimedia project
New York Times exemplified how multimedia can be optimised back in 2012 with ‘Snow Fall’. It employed parallax scrolling (or ‘pretty sliding’ as Mindy calls it) and excellent responsive design —it took the media world by storm, attracting over 3 million views in its first week:
Catherine Spangler, video journalist who worked on Snow Fall, said:
The challenges of crafting multimedia to complement a text-based story were the same challenges faced in any storytelling endeavor. We focused on the pacing, narrative tension and story arc — all while ensuring that each element gave the user a different experience of the story. The team often asked whether a video or piece of audio was adding value to the project. Having a tight edit that slowly built the tension of the narrative was the overall goal.
It seems easy to overcrowd multimedia stories, and the non-linear nature of them means that more precise editing is required to ensure the user has a smooth experience.
Using art to tell stories
An alternative to audio and video, which are the first things that come to mind when a journalists thinks of multimedia, is using art to tell stories.
Cartoonist Matt Pritchard has been using his drawings to tell political stories for the Telegraph. Brexit in particular provided him a host of material to interpret visually and in an entertaining way.
Not every journalist likes the prospect
Despite most writers embracing multimodality, some despise the notion, such as Eric from MediaStorm. He argues multimedia is:
linguistically confusing–“media” is itself already plural–in terms of describing our work, the label does us all a disservice.
OK, so the word itself might not make sense. But generally ‘multimedia’ is used as an umbrella term and demonstrates the array of channels that we now have access to and use to distribute information.
This doesn’t mean text is obsolete. The content and truth is foremost important. Multimodality should be integrated and use them only when they add something to your story.
Thanks for reading.
Follow me on social media for new blog posts and curated content from other journalists and bloggers on these topics:
