Online Storytelling (Amir)

Slideshows

Slideshows are a great way to keep news-followers or any type of media audience engaged and entertained. I looked at the MSNBC “Week In Photos” and it featured some amazing photos that captured newsworthy events of the week. Sometimes, words do not fully capture certain things that pictures can about a particular story. For example, in one of the pictures, it showed a family mourning the loss of a police captain in Mass.—without pictures, those reading about the story can only read. The pictures allows there to be an emotional connection and a better understanding of the reported issue. Also, there is a picture of fireworks at a Chinese New Years celebration; a report without picture would be much more boring than a picture and description together. It is much more interesting seeing a visual description than one with just words. It becomes more than just reading about this week’s event; it becomes more fascinating to follow with the picture because it captures the essence of the story better than words.

Audio Stories

Even though technology is continually advancing, this traditional type of storytelling can be helpful when it comes to certain stories. I listened to “Audio Man On The Street” and it reminded me of the witnesses and people on the street that get interviewed on local news shows. There are some stories where pictures and words are not enough; sometimes what people witnessed and their opinions are better at conveying a certain type of stories. For examples, stories that are focused on robberies or house fires need information from victims and witnesses—therefore, what they contribute is the most important. And, because they are witnesses and where there when a certain event occurred, they can describe it better than the journalist or reporter. The only issue that I have with this type of storytelling is that sometimes it is only effective when it comes to descriptive and explaining purposes—reporting is something on another plain. It may not be enough on its own to fully detail a story or event because it is based heavily on opinion and comes from a personal perspective.

Multimedia Interactives

Out of all the types of online storytelling, I think this is the most effective out of the bunch, simply because it’s a combination of the other types of storytelling that the article included. I looked at the “U Street In Focus” and it includes audio, slideshow and other types of visual elements and not only successfully conveys the subject matter in interesting ways but keeps you engaged as well. It also presents the information, pictures and video in an easy and organized manner. I can appreciate this because, sometimes, websites that use some of today’s newest technology are difficult to manage and work and require to many plug-ins and downloads. The only issue I think that this type of storytelling has is that there are a lot of visual effects but the written portions are smaller. I think that this takes away from the factual side of things and gives more light to the visual. I am not sure if that was the intent, but it is something that I noticed.