Multimedia Storytelling and its Controversial History

By Ethan Bruemmer, November 23, 2021

Using a multimedia storytelling approach to journalism is one way to entice your reader and to get people interested and engaged with what you’re writing about (Trilleras 2021). Christopher Trilleras, defines multimedia as, “the combination of text, photographs, video clips, audio interactive graphics that are presented through different mediums and complements each other” (Trilleras 2021).

However, throughout history, especially when it comes to National Geographic, it is seen that they use photos and videos of indigenous people and nonwestern civilizations to show their strange nature, and inferiority. They use media strategies to illustrate these civilizations as different, strange, and exotic, as if they are a museum exhibit, to gain attraction to their story (Wamsley 2018). In this way, if one looks at using multimedia storytelling as a means of getting a profit, they miss the mark on qualifying as good journalists since they do not seek out the truth, or accuracy in their facts, but instead seek to put a civilization on display for us to judge. 

A recent npr article addresses these issues that occurred in the past, and states what has changed or still needs to change. In order to more accurately represent these civilizations, and to still present a multimedia story with gorgeous and enticing photos and videos, the journalists and photographers can be people who are from these regions or have been more acquainted with these civilizations. These experts, or residents will  have a better vision of how best to represent these or their own cultures. 

Adding to this is a article by Emilee Gilpin, that speaks about how Indigenous Journalists are getting a voice in the media and how to best represent themselves. It states the fact that westerners are not the only ones who do or have done journalism, as it has been a thing in indigenous communities far before western influence. The sharing and witnessing of stories has always been a form of journalism in all communities. As the article states, indigenous people are not represented accurately, or factually in the media, and one way for the media to gain back the trust of the indigenous community is to speak for themselves about their own cultures.

As we are advancing in the technology presented to us, and becoming more and more globalized, it is still prevalent that indigenous and nonwestern communities are not given a journalistic voice (Asmi 2017). There is also a misrepresentation of indigenous people as savages in the past and this misrepresentation is not being remedied today, as much as it should be (Asmi 2017). Indigenous people need to be given an accurate voice in the media and a way to do this is to use the idea of personal narrative which can be multimedia and often is, and give these indigenous people a voice whether it be in an article the wrote themselves, or through a podcast that they use to tell stories of their culture that will better educate the western media on how this indigenous representation should look like (Asmi 2017).

A great example of indigenous people getting their voices back can be seen by in the documentary film Angry Inuk. This film details both sides of the issues involving seal hunting. While it shows the arguments made by high profile anti-hunting campaigns, it also gives indigenous people a voice. Seal hunting is a traditional ritual for indigenous people in the film and is part of their culture. The film gives them a voice and allows for us to be sympathetic towards their way of life.

References:

Arnaquq-Baril, Alethea. 2016. Angry Inuk. National Film Board of Canada.

Asmi, R.E. 2017. Indigenous Representation in the Media and the Importance of Personal Narrative. The University of Montana.

Gilpin, E. 2018. Indigenous journalists speak up. Canada’s National Observer.

Trilleras, C. 2021. Elements of Good Multimedia Storytelling. Gettysburg College.

Wamsley, L. 2018. ‘National Geographic’ Reckons With Its Past: ‘For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist.’ npr.

This post was updated on 12/8/2021. The changes that were made included a definition from Trilleras’ blog post on what multimedia is. In addition, some changes were made in incorrectly claiming that national geographic magazines were multimedia stories. Lastly, the addition of Angry Inuk was added as it relates to what the blog speaks about.