While journalism and newsrooms of old might have thrived on putting out newspapers for local citizens on stands, it is abundantly evident that the journalism field has grown much more complex with the emergence of new technologies. According to Poytner, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) has stopped trying to gage the total number of jobs lost in American newspaper rooms, citing the changing structure of modern newsrooms. In this day and age, journalism, according to a story craft by Nieman Storyboard, must be dynamic: integrating the various technologies-whether that be audio like podcasts or visual like videos-to build “a narrative environment for the user.” This is multiplatform journalism, which combines classic journalistic instincts-such as the organization, verification, and accurate presentation of information-with various media forms-including text, audio tracks, videography, and photography-for an immersive experience. A multimedia journalist is someone who can adequately blend all of these elements together into a cohesive, captivating experience, whilst at the same time being able to market these multimedia works across several social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram.
According to Mindy McAdams, digital journalism professor at the University of Florida, the marks of good multimedia journalism are that each piece of media feels integrated and connected with each other to create a flowing story, where “each one [of the media types] is used in a way that makes the most of its strengths.” Conversely, underwhelming multimedia pieces are characterized by redundancy or prioritizing one media form over another, with McAdams saying, “Don’t marginalize the visual media.” One example of the latter would be a review of the 2019 remake of “Pet Sematary” from IGN, an entertainment news website. At first glance, it would seem that the article incorporates a good deal of media types, such as a photo gallery of images from the film, giving viewers a sample of its aesthetics. However, upon closer inspection, much of the media operate more so as tangents-like a feature about why Church the Cat is a horror icon or a video comparing the original 1989 film and the book, but not the 2019 movie. Then there is the main video review, which mostly repeats verbatim what is said in the text, making the video kind of pointless. The article would have been much better off making each media piece feel more connected and co-dependent on one another, which would have created a more immersive experience.
Mark Burbridge 