Multimedia Myths

By Anita Malik
October 17, 2008 02:02 PM

Extreme market changes and recent financial uncertainty have provided noticeable examples of the Web’s dominance in delivering the news, but still, print reporters I’ve met from West to East and South to North struggle to embrace this different perspective.

At recent workshops around the country, a multimedia exercise I led was profoundly telling, revealing the progress the industry has made in moving toward online storytelling but also the failings in the shift.

When asked to plan, or storyboard, a multimedia package for a particular story, groups of reporters consistently delivered innovative ideas. These print reporters threw around plans packed with video, podcasts and interactive graphics without a second thought or any of the stereotypical disdain for the digital revolution.

The problem, however, is that they still too often view multimedia in isolation rather than as a part of the whole in terms of content delivery. It’s a mindset that actually stems from the top. A notion that dangerously leads to segmented coverage and a void of journalistic balance.

We’ve all witnessed it: news organizations furiously pumping out video and audio reports only for the sake of doing so. Reporters forced into a quota of video stories per week or told to redo interviews on camera after the print reporting is done. Multimedia mediums are considered fluffy add-ons for the unsophisticated reader with attention deficit problems. Multimedia is not journalism… or so it would seem.

This viewpoint has filtered down to reporters, and so when they conceptualize a multimedia package, they consistently hold on to one if not all of the following myths.  All are errors of perception that must change if print news outlets hope to at least compete or win in the race for Web traffic.

1. Multimedia is not journalism.
   Truth: Multimedia is journalism. I make this statement in every training session and the usual response is a mix of sneers and pensive glances. It’s not a complex concept, but one many reporters struggle with. Whether it is video, a podcast or a blog posting, each element must be able to stand on its own and be balanced just as a print piece would be. The standards and ethics of good reporting still apply.
2. I will never do any multimedia.
   Truth: Multimedia is not outside anyone’s job anymore. Reporters who tell me they enjoyed my presentation but won’t ever use the training at work give me a migraine. To be blunt, you will use it. You may never have to pick up a video camera or design a graphic, but you will in some way, large or small, be involved in tailoring stories to or planning packages for the Web. As an increasing amount of content is produced exclusively for online distribution, this fact is too obvious to ignore.

   And, I’ll make a bold prediction here: You WILL blog at some point. As witnessed recently in the coverage of the Wall Street turmoil, blogs are the predominant medium for breaking news. Blogs are, in fact, the prevailing format for online stories, and in some ways, stories and blog postings are almost interchangeable.

3. My newspaper won’t let us do multimedia. It’s not my job.
   Truth: Sadly, some news organizations are further behind in the digital shift than others, leaving reporters with few resources for online storytelling. In other cases, multimedia efforts are regulated to a separate department and print reporters aren’t given the opportunity to learn or utilize skills in this arena. This is why individual initiative is crucial.

   I encourage business reporters to take it upon themselves to learn basic multimedia principles - what types of stories make a good package, how to put a pitch together, etc. Do your homework and then show up and prove your longevity in today’s new landscape. It’s good for your current position and for your resume.

   Don’t wait for the orders to come from the top. Draft pitches for special multimedia projects or new aggregate Web pages on important coverage areas or companies in your community. Get involved in helping to generate Web traffic by thinking visually about your business story ideas. You may never have to press record on the camera, but you can pitch and produce the idea.

4. Print is out of the picture.
   Truth: When asked to storyboard (plan) a multimedia idea, workshop participants more often than not neglect text-based stories. In their eagerness to talk about interactive ideas, they either forget the print story or downplay its inclusion in the overall package. Print is still important! It is vital, in fact, to rounding out a solid, thorough multimedia package. Remember this: Multimedia means the complementary use of many types of media, including print, to tell the story.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism