New tools and new media
I've written about the new and wonderful opportunities newspapers have to extend their journalism into audio and video. We're just now starting to understand the possibilities. Julian Gallo, a professor of New Media at the Master of Journalism program offered by the University of San Andrés, Grupo Clarín and the Columbia University School of Journalism, puts a fine point on it for us (via Steve Outing here).
In a single post, he illustrates the value of video, audio and the written word when they complement each other. He uses the written and audio versions of a speech by Juan Perón in 1955 as an example. We could say that, from an informative viewpoint, both the textual and the audio versions are alike. But when we listen, we realize they are not. I would say they complement each other. I can better analyze the written word, but I can better perceive the menacing tone in his voice. The oral version of Perón scares me. The point is that pictures, audio or video material should be included whenever appropriate. As readers, we should learn to demand not to be deprived of multimedia information. Printed newspapers are mute; Internet media are not.
We've intuited this -- and provided audio in isolated cases -- but we haven't fully embraced it for a variety of reasons, not the least of which involve time and resources. With technology and readers' demands racing ahead of us, we must move faster to break the model we've followed for so many years.
To paraphrase Terry Heaton in his post about TV News in a Postmodern World: We will continue to improve our daily journalism, and I hope that it will continue to draw more readers. Meanwhile, to grab new readers and to help them understand their community better, we must use all the creative thinking -- and tools -- at our disposal.
Comments (2)
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Our stock and trade is the written word. The multimedia content should support, not supplant, the written word. We shouldn't be trying to beat television and radio at their games, 'cause we aren't going to be able to do so. Using audio and video the way we use photography -- sans commentary, merely to help "put the reader there" and convey aspects of the story we can never get across in a few inches of type -- that's a beautiful thing, and it doesn't take an overwhelming amount of production time.
When newspapers start putting their employees on camera and trying to turn them into television journalists, however... well, that's just a waste of already overtaxed resources.
Posted on December 28, 2005 9:23 AM
In my opinion we have to put accent to the use of multimedia online. The most useful part of Gallo's is that with basic skills a journalist could create a multimedia story than can have beginning and end. End in the middle the multimedia will be part of the whole story not put aside. Nobody is trying to replace the TV or Radio, just to create full multimedia story
Posted on January 5, 2006 11:52 AM