“I have been called a Luddite,” Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite writer, said in his collection of essays, A Man Without a Country.
He went on to explain that Luddites are individuals who largely shun technology, thinking that the old ways are better. I could also be described as a Luddite.
My old-school tendencies show up in the way I advise student media. For four years, the staffs I have advised produced wonderful printed newspapers that would fit right in to the scholastic journalism of the late 90s.
So, when I started exploring the first module’s assignments in Teaching Multimedia, I discovered a lot of new ideas. A few of the most important ideas came from Mindy McAdams in her blog about redefining multimedia journalism.
McAdams included a list of suggestions regarding the function of multimedia storytelling. While the entire list is helpful, three ideas truly struck me:
- compliment, don’t repeat;
- immersive experiences rule;
- and good journalistic judgment is still needed.
The different tools used to tell a multimedia story shouldn’t all be a reiteration of each other. If the video is just a visual version of the text, or if the still photos do not add anything new, or if the audio files are a rehash of already known information, then the package is not truly multimedia. News consumers want to have their senses stimulated, and putting together a package that immerses them is key to the experience.
This cuts to the heart of why I could be described as a Luddite: I do not have the skills needed to put those packages together. Likewise, I do not know how to advise students to create them. But McAdams’ last point gave me hope. I still know how to teach students to develop good journalistic judgment.
And so, I started to explore the examples of great multimedia storytelling. I discovered my favorite—a combination of video documentary, text and interactive map about the Cronulla riots in Australia—through the Fauna corporation website. This opened my eyes to the potential multimedia storytelling used by my staff.
Instead of an online photo gallery for a girls basketball game, the staff could create a multimedia package. It could include video for highlights or player reaction; an interactive map of a drawn-up play explaining the roles and motion of the players; a textual recap of the game; and a slideshow of photos narrated by the photographer. The only problem the staff faces is that their adviser is a luddite, and does not know how to teach them to assemble and integrate those pieces.
Vonnegut went to his grave shunning a lot of modern technology. I don’t want to continue to advise student media doing the same thing. I want to gain better technical knowledge of how to help students orchestrate stunning multimedia packages.
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