What Defines Multimedia Storytelling?

By Gissel Quechol-Raya

While scrolling through news sources online, could you spot the differences between a regular print newspaper and online news? What are the differences, are there any similarities? Well for starters, print newspapers are as mentioned print, they are required to have an attention-grabbing headline, a picture that is intriguing, and short but detailed text. But how did technology change the journalism world? It was the rise of new media and technologies that introduced new possibilities for journalists to produce multimedia stories (VanKrieken, 2018). Most online news sources are interactive, with multiple colored pictures, videos, or recordings that are placed throughout the story that it is called multimedia storytelling (Stevens, 2020). 

Having the multimedia storytelling checklist in hand let’s inspect Dori Gorczyca’s website “Is it Hot Out Here?” on whether it is should be categorized as multimedia storytelling and if so how. Let us discuss what is missing from the website. Journalism allows for the writers to argue their standing point yet it seems to be lacking that argument aspect. The website offers more details and facts on climate change, while it’s good to be educated their arguments of the story and counterargument are excluded. Both need to be presented as it allows fairness and transparency from the author to the audience.

Further inspection of the website, the first thing to notice is how interactive the tabs are for the users. This nonlinear storytelling offers a story “shell” that is then a part of a broader issue or beat shell(Stevens, 2020). The navigational menus allow for users to roam around freely on the site while also learning and reading about climate change. Poking around the Map of the disappearing glaciers, the user is allowed to expand pictures, click on the pins that will then lead to the glacier it is, and as the glacier changes from one to another the map next to it singles out its location. The interactiveness of the website brings out the different emotions and reactions from the users to which they could then express by commenting if they desire to.

The pictures complement the map as it allows the user to focus on one glacier at a time. Then following the other tabs they also have pictures that allow the audience to have connections made like the explanation of “What Is Climate Change?”, the text following the pictures allows for the readers to visualize what climate change is causing to the world. Although there is a youtube video it may seem too long because usually, videos should not take longer than three minutes (Stevens, 2020), but the video has those important details that are educating users. 

Multimedia storytelling is the new method used by journalists to engage the audience. As humans are often learning by sight, the interactiveness, pictures, and videos allow for the users to make the connections of the text to said elements. Dori Gorczyca’s website had the proper elements but missed the journalism aspect of it.

Sources

Gorczyca, D. (2015). Glacier National Park. Is It Hot Out Here?

Stevens, J. (2020). Multimedia Storytelling: learn the secrets from experts. Berkeley Advanced Media Institute.

VanKrieken, K. (2018). Multimedia storytelling in journalism: Exploring narrative techniques in snow fall. Information, 9 (5), 123.