Thoughts on "Journalism stories: A multimedia approach

I enjoyed walking through Mindy McAdams’ tutorial on multimedia journalism. I absolutely agree that starting off with a list of questions you want answered is the right beginning. Too often, we begin with a list of points we want to make, rather than questions we want answered, and the result is a screed rather than a work of journalism. After working through her steps, though, there is one point one which I’d make a modification: I think her sequence may be limiting.

Here’s what I mean: Mindy writes about asking questions, putting them into modules, and managing the size of the modules, all before you begin the reporting. I know you can do that, but I think you should also be quite open to re-organizing the modules based on what the story tells you. If we’re starting with questions, we have to be willing to go where the story takes us, in form as well as content.

One of the points made in the second part of this story (yes, I read ahead…) is that we have to consider how best to tell each part of the story. That’s new, and represents one of the most interesting parts of being a multimedia journalist. The tricky part, in my experience, isn’t in telling the story in various places, but in getting the reader to follow the story across the different media. When every part of the story is on-line, it’s somewhat easier — hyperlinks can take you anywhere — but when a piece of the story is in print and others are on-line, then you’re faced with the dilemma of how much of the story to tell in each medium.

Knowing that, even on line, many readers won’t pick up the entire package, I think it’s critical that each module (or story element) stand alone — if a reader is going to come into a single piece of the story (through, for example, a link from a search engine) they must be able to get meaning and a complete story experience from that piece alone. This goes counter to some strategies for giving readers an incentive to read the whole package, but it’s the only honest way to deal with the readers — and honesty has to be at the center of everything a journalist does.