Multimedia: This Land and We Choose the Moon

"This Land" and "We Choose the Moon" are both pretty advanced multimedia projects with a lot of information. They both use photos, videos, audio, and writing to tell a story. They both give you options as to what you want to look at and listen to or not look at and listen to. The stories they are each telling build up until they reach their climax at then end.

I am unsure if it was the actual story or the use of multimedia that made me like "This Land" a lot more. I thought it was a very captivating story of a journey just like "We Choose the Moon," but the personal part of it made me enjoy it more. You feel like you know the story teller, compared to the journey to the moon where you feel a connection to the ship. The fact that you had to watch the videos of the spaceship flying through space every time got a little old as well.

This Land was awesome in terms of multimedia because when you clicked on each day, you were first shown where they were geographically with a bird's eye map view, and then there was a photo from that part of the trip; along with a written summary and audio in the background. It just had everything you need to feel like you were there.

Multimedia

The New York Times article and the student article are two examples of the use of multimedia in journalism. The New York Times article is a story about the kidnapping of two journalists by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Student project is an awareness project about the post civil war in Sierra Leone, with the people there making a shift from diamonds to agriculture.

The multimedia aspect in the New York Times article is complimentary videos including one of the kidnapees' telling his story with graphics helping to illustrate it. These videos go along with detailed articles telling the same story. If you don't want to read the whole article the videos give you a good summary about what happened, and if you do read the article they help you paint a picture geographically. In the article videos that the Taliban made the kidnapees' watch are talked about, and in the videos they are actually shown. The best part about the videos was that they showed a computer generated version of where they were in Pakistan down to the exact roads. They are amazingly produced.

The Student project is a combination of articles and videos on the same page. Martin Ricard recorded the videos himself and uses them together with writing to tell his story about the rise of agriculture in Sierra Leone. First you read an article and then watch a video, and then you read another article to finish the story.

Both multimedia projects are nicely done. The only criticism I have is that for the student project you have to read and watch everything to get the full story (if that's a bad thing). The New York Times article allows you to watch the video and then go into the article for details you wish to know more about. If you have time to sit down and enjoy a full article like either of these then this isn't a problem; but the New York Times one gives you some options.