Multimedia: A Must-Have in Storytelling

In some ways, journalism is practically stuck in the days of typewriters and clunky film-only cameras. Take, for instance, professional journalists’ views regarding the importance of multimedia skills.

Just 46 percent of journalism professionals who responded to a 2014 survey by The Poynter Institute rated the ability to shoot and edit video as “very important” in their field. By comparison, 76 percent of journalism educators said they think those skills are “very important.”

In fact, the Poynter survey pointed out that compared with journalism educators and journalism managers, journalism professionals are laggards in other areas of multimedia, too. Journalism professionals also attached less importance to other multimedia abilities: recording and editing audio, shooting and editing photos, and telling stories with design and visuals.

News flash, journalism professionals: Multimedia skills are as critical to modern storytelling as a notepad and pen were 20 years ago. And it’s not just “professional” journalists who must embrace multimedia. It’s also brand journalists and bloggers and anyone else in the business of telling stories. On the web, a blob of black-and-white text accompanied by a single photo won’t cut it in 21st century storytelling.

However, that doesn’t mean every story must be crammed with whiz-bang multimedia components; as in the case of the White House trying to jazz up President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address with a flurry of graphics, the use multimedia can be overwhelming.

Ultimately, though, an information consumer is the final judge of how much is too much. The effectiveness of multimedia is in the eye of the reader, viewer or listener. For instance, I don’t have much patience for videos embedded in online articles, but I often flip through online slideshows. No one type of multimedia is necessarily more effective than the other, but to disregard the power of multimedia is a mistake.

In a recent article published by Mashable, Zachary Sniderman wrote:

A website without multimedia is like a cupcake without icing: Functional but lacking. These days, all manner of web pages from huge company sites to small business blogs are expected to add audio, photo, or video to their posts and homepages.

Here are three examples of how storytelling serves up the cupcake and the icing.

Whiteboard Friday

The folks at The Moz Blog, a must-read for anyone in the SEO business, have created something called Whiteboard Friday. Every Friday, the blog posts a video of an SEO specialist standing before a whiteboard and covering a buzz-worthy topic in SEO, such as content syndication or email alerts. A video transcript accompanies each lesson for those who don’t want to watch the video, along with a static image of a whiteboard showing a summary of the lesson.

The Chicken Whisperer

You may not have heard of Andy Schneider, better known as the Chicken Whisperer, but a legion of chicken owners has. Schneider has built a multimedia empire around the subject of raising chickens. Schneider wrote a book, produces a podcast, maintains a website, and even has hatched the quarterly Chicken Whisperer magazine, which comes in digital and print formats. Tractor Supply Co., a chain of agricultural stores that sponsors the Chicken Whisperer, posts YouTube videos of Schneider dispensing chicken-raising advice.

Snow Fall

Every time we discuss incorporating multimedia into our employer’s blogs, my boss reverently refers to The New York Times’ multimedia project “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.” The project, published in 2012, elegantly weaves a tapestry of multimedia threads — videos, photos, slideshows, interactive graphics, audio clips, a documentary film and even an e-book — to tell the tragic tale of an avalanche that killed three skiers. The New Yorker magazine hailed the project as “superb and thorough.” The Snow Fall project should be mandatory reading/viewing/listening for anyone engaged in multimedia storytelling.

The Staying Power of The Huffington Post

With an estimated 110 million unique visitors a month, The Huffington Post reigns as the most popular blog in America’s blogosphere. Its next closest blog competitor is gossip website TMZ, which racks up about 30 million unique visitors a month. No matter how you feel about The Huffington Post, it’s clearly the leader of the blog pack.

Founded in 2005, The Huffington Post has been praised by fans and panned by critics.

Naysayers have complained that the blog is, among other things, shallow, sexist and “predictably liberal,” according to the Nieman Journalism Lab. Some have blasted the blog for raking in revenue but failing to pay many of its contributors; I happen to be one of the unpaid contributors. Perhaps the sharpest criticism centers on The Huffington Post’s practice of aggregating a lot of content from other websites but not spending a dime on it.

The Huffington Post, now owned by AOL, does have its share of defenders, though. For instance, Jack Shafer of Slate.com took traditional journalists to task for whining about The Huffington Post’s alleged pilfering of content. “Borrowing, sponging, lifting, scrounging, leaching, pinching, and outright theft of other publications’ work is firmly in the American journalistic tradition,” Shafer wrote. Data journalist Nate Silver hasn’t been wholehearted in his admiration for The Huffington Post, but he has called it “innovative” and “effective.”

To be sure, The Huffington Post has been effective in delivering information; if that weren’t the case, millions of people wouldn’t bother reading the blog every day. However, The Huffington Post never will be confused with high-brow media outlets like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. Those three traditional media outlets tend to be more mainstream in their approaches to delivering information.

Plus, in terms of substance, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic have more heft, if you will, than The Huffington Post does. While The Huffington Post might be considered a robust snack, the three traditional media outlets cited are more like a full meal. To be fair, The Huffington Post does employ a cadre of journalists who produce top-notch work, but much of the blog’s content is cranked out by those unpaid bloggers I mentioned before.

Furthermore, the writing on The Huffington Post, while certainly not bad, generally does not rise to the esteemed level of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic. Those traditional media outlets are the meat, while The Huffington Post is the potatoes. Nonetheless, I’d hazard a guess that readers of The Huffington Post are satisfied with the potatoes and aren’t necessarily hungry for the meat. If readers want the meat, they can find it elsewhere on the media menu.

In the end, The Huffington Post serves its purpose — it delivers reliable information at the speed of the Internet. It doesn’t pretend to be The New York Times; if it tried, it would flop. Instead, The Huffington Post excels at cooking up a stew of breaking news, opinion, celebrity gossip, political happenings, lifestyle features and other “ingredients.” And, by and large, The Huffington Post adheres to an array of best practices for a blog. Here are several examples:

• It properly mixes words, photos, video and other storytelling elements.
• It knows its place. The Huffington Post strives to be a lot of things to a lot of people, yet its voice and tone are distinct. While some blogs succeed by targeting a certain niche, the one niche that The Huffington Post really goes after is the liberal political crowd. Otherwise, the world is The Huffington Post’s niche.
• Its design is consistent throughout.
• It publishes accurate content on a regular basis.
• It knows its audience.

Early on, some detractors doubted whether The Huffington Post would survive, or at least thought the blog would struggle mightily. Yet The Huffington Post has proven its staying power, and has shown the blogosphere how to produce a well-read blog every single day.

Sources

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/

http://www.niemanlab.org/encyclo/huffington-post/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2009/04/dont_get_all_huffy_about_the_huffington_post.html

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/the-economics-of-blogging-and-the-huffington-post/

Penn State Mourns Loss of Coaching Legend Joe Paterno

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (January 22, 2012) — Pennsylvania State University coach legend Joe Paterno — a man synonymous with the University who led the Nittany Lions football team for 46 seasons and amassed a record-setting 409 victories — died January 22 at age 85.

“We grieve for the loss of Joe Paterno, a great man who made us a greater university. His dedication to ensuring his players were successful both on the field and in life is legendary and his commitment to education is unmatched in college football. His life, work and generosity will be remembered always,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said.

Erickson said the University plans to honor Coach Paterno’s “remarkable life and legacy” at an undetermined date, following consultation by the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics with members of the Penn State community.

Aside from his wife, Sue, and their five children, Coach Paterno’s survivors include 17 grandchildren. Arrangements for a funeral Mass are pending.

Coach Paterno had passionately served the Penn State football program and the University with principle, distinction and honor since earning a degree from Penn State in 1950. After 16 years as an assistant coach, he was named head football coach in 1966.

Coach Paterno posted a 409-136-3 record as head coach and was the leader in career victories among major college coaches. Coach Paterno’s overall postseason record of 24-12-1 landed him at No. 3 all-time among coaches who competed in at least 15 bowl games.

Under Coach Paterno’s leadership, the Nittany Lions claimed two National Championships (1982 and 1986), five undefeated seasons, and 23 finishes in the Top 10 of the national collegiate football rankings.

In 2007, Paterno was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.

“I have mixed feelings because there were so many people that are not with me anymore who made it possible for me,” Coach Paterno said at the induction ceremony.

“How good has it been? What we share in football; there’s never been a greater game. We’ve been involved in the greatest game, the greatest experience anybody could hope for. Great teammates. Guys you could trust. Guys you loved. Guys you would go to war with tomorrow. We’re so lucky ... we’re so lucky. If we lose what we have in football, we’ll lose an awful lot in this country, and we’ve got to remember that.”

Aside from his contributions to the game of football, Coach Paterno also will be remembered for his contributions to the University.

In 1998, Coach Paterno, his wife and their five chidren pledged $3.5 million to the University, bringing their total giving to Penn State to $4 million. The Paterno gift endows faculty positions and scholarships in the College of the Liberal Arts, the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and the University Libraries, and supported two building projects.

“Penn State has been very good to both Sue and me,” Coach Paterno said when the donation was announced. “We have met some wonderful people here, we’ve known many students who have gone on to become outstanding leaders in their professions and in society, and all of our children have received a first-class education here. I’ve never felt better about Penn State and its future potential than I do right now. Sue and I want to do all we can to help the University reach that potential.”

Note: In producing this news release, I wrote it as if I were writing it for Penn State. Therefore, I relied heavily on a University biography of Coach Paterno in crafting this news release; many portions of the biography appear in this news release.

Sources

http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/paterno_joe00.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/us/pennsylvania-paterno-reax/

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/coaches/joe-paterno-1.html

The Power of Blogging, Video Sharing and Text Messaging

Statistics don’t lie, at least when they’re not distorted. So, based on reliable statistics, it’s easy to see the truth about the popularity of three new media tools: blogs, video sharing and text messaging. These three tools are effective in reaching audiences because their reach is so vast.

Blogging

First, let’s look at blogs. Ian Fisher, assistant managing editor at The New York Times, recently made this comment: “Blogs got very trendy about seven or eight years ago as a new way of storytelling.” The numbers show that blogs are anything but trendy:

• More than 152 million blogs are on the Internet.
• A blog is created somewhere in the world every half second.
• 77 percent of Internet users read blogs.

At least two things make blogs powerful: Blogs have a massive reach, and blogs give the power to anyone with a computer or mobile device to share information and opinions with the world.

Video sharing

Video sharing also is a powerful new media tool. YouTube is the undisputed king of video sharing. Here are four statistics about YouTube that underscore its star status:

• YouTube is the world’s third most popular website.
• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube every month.
• Over 6 billion hours of video are viewed each month on YouTube — that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth.
• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

As with blogging, video sharing is effective because it’s universal. Anyone with a computer or mobile device can watch videos on YouTube and other websites, and anyone with a video-equipped mobile device or a video recorder can produce and post videos.

Text messaging

Finally, we’ve got text messaging. These days, Americans use their cellphones more for sending and receiving text messages than they do to make and receive phone calls. Among American cellphone owners, 81 percent send text messages on their devices. And Americans aren’t the only ones who’ve latched onto the texting trend: In 24 emerging and developing countries, a median of 78 percent of mobile phone owners use their devices to send texts.

The widespread use of texting, along with the ease and immediacy of sending and receiving text messages, contributes greatly to its effectiveness as a new media tool.

In conclusion

Yes, statistics don’t lie. And when it comes to statistics about blogging, video sharing and text messaging, the statistics tell the truth about the power of these three new media tools.

Sources

http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/blogs/

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/whats-gained-and-lost-as-the-times-ends-many-blogs

http://www.social4retail.com/the-blog-economy-blogging-stats-infographic-2014.html

http://www.wpvirtuoso.com/how-many-blogs-are-on-the-internet/

http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/video-sharing-sites/

https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

http://www.alexa.com/topsites

http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/text-messaging/

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/02/20/behind-facebooks-whatsapp-purchase-a-global-appetite-for-texting/

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/09/19/cell-phone-activities-2013/

How Credible Are Links in the Online Content You’re Reading?

On July 2, 2012, The Huffington Post published an article under the headline “Burger King Supports LGBT Rights With ‘Proud Whopper’ And ‘Be Your Way’ Campaign.” The article contains 10 links to internal and external sources — a lot of links for a relatively short piece. But no matter whether a piece of content has two or 10 links, a reader must consider the weight that each link carries.

Overall, the cited sources in The Huffington Post article are relatively credible, based on guidelines set out in Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources. In fact, four of the cited sources are The Huffington Post itself; as an established website, The Huffington Post is a credible source of information, although some readers may consider it “liberal” and “biased,” based in part on the political leanings of its founder, Arianna Huffington.

Meanwhile, three of the links go to websites for nonprofit LGBT organizations — one organization in San Francisco and the other in Seattle. According to the credibility criteria, these websites qualify as “special interest” sites; of course, these sites promote the positions of the organizations, but that should come as no surprise to the reader. Another link leads to a page on the website of the nonprofit Burger King McLamore Foundation about the group’s scholars program; again, this site promotes the organization and, as such, is biased.

The remaining two links connect to social media websites; one link goes to Burger King’s YouTube page and the other to a Yelp review of a Burger King restaurant in San Francisco. While these are credible sources, a reader must keep in mind that the sites are biased, as both are promotional in nature.

The Burger King article on The Huffington Post stands out as an example of how tethered online content is to other online content in this era of unrestricted publishing through mass media, whether a content link directs a reader to a news website, a business website, a personal blog or a social media network. Because we have woven such a complicated web of interlinked content, the modern-day reader must be cautious about taking linked content at face value. The linking of a blog post or article to another piece of online content should not be viewed as a tacit endorsement of the validity of that linked content; the reader should judge each piece of linked content on its own merits.