Atlantic Journal of Communication, 18:63–78, 2010
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1545-6870 print/1545-6889 online
DOI: 10.1080/15456870903554882
Emerging Models of Multimedia Journalism:A Content Analysis of Multimedia Packages
Published on nytimes.com
Susan Jacobson
Department of Journalism
Temple University
Conventional wisdom dictates that the future of newspaper journalism is online. But what does this
new form of journalism look like? Using the Web site of the New York Times as an exploratory case
study, the author conducted a content analysis on 45 multimedia news packages published between
2000 and 2007, coding for narrative qualities, news values, and media format in an effort to begin
to understand the emerging characteristics of multimedia Web journalism. The packages in this
exploratory study demonstrated little of the hypertextual structures defined by theorists of the Web,
perhaps reflecting the transitional nature of the period. First-person narrative, by both journalists
and nonjournalists, was the most common point of view. More than one fourth of the multimedia
packages consisted of first-person accounts by nonjournalists accompanied by traditional stories
written by reporters published in the print edition of the New York Times, presenting an interesting
model for professional–citizen collaborations across media.
INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth and development of the Internet has fundamentally affected the business of
newspaper journalism around the world. Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times,
told an Israeli newspaper that he was managing the transition of the Times from a print-based
product to an online product. “I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five
years,” he said (Avriel, 2007). Although conventional wisdom suggests that the change from
paper to screen will occur, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (2007) views the course of
the transition as uncertain: “While journalists are becoming more serious about the Web, no
clear models of how to do journalism online really exist yet, and some qualities are still only
marginally explored.”
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susan Jacobson, Department of Journalism, Temple
University, 2020 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122. E-mail: [email protected]
63
64 JACOBSON
Research into the content of newspaper Web sites has concluded that “online” does not
necessarily mean “multimedia” (Deuze, 2004; Quandt, 2008). Newspapers in particular seem
to be repackaging their print content for the brave new online world. Marshall McLuhan (1965)
observed that the initial content of a new medium is an older medium, with innovation following
later. As newsrooms migrate more of their activities to the Web, it is likely that the shape of
the news will also undergo transformation.
To investigate these changes, this study used a content analysis of multimedia packages
published on the nytimes.com Web site between 2001 and 2007 as an exploratory case study
to better understand how multimedia journalism is taking shape on the Web. In particular,
this study is concerned with the extent to which multimedia news stories published in the
hypertextual environment of the Web may reflect the structural qualities of hypertext as pro-
posed by theorists of hypertext. The communication paradigm envisioned by hypertext theorists
represents a radical departure from traditional journalistic narrative. McLuhan (1965) observed
that a new medium has consequences—good and bad—for the society that it permeates.
Changing from analog print and broadcast to the digital Web has already begun to influence
how we educate young journalists, how consumers of news products interpret the news and
how practitioners approach the craft of journalism.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Studies investigating the expressive qualities of multimedia reporting on the Web are just
emerging in the literature, although several studies have looked at characteristics of online
news sites in general. Thorsen Quandt (2008) evaluated stories linked to the home pages of
10 major news organizations in the United States and Europe and found that most of the Web
sites “revealed a lack of multimedia content” (p. 717). Jane Singer (2006) found that, although
multimedia content may be limited on the Web, the online editors of major U.S. newspapers
believed that user participation and customization increased from the year 2000 to 2004. Jack
Rosenberry (2005) reviewed the ability of the Web audience to engage in public communication
on 47 U.S. newspaper Web sites and found that, overall, news organizations did not embrace
the full communication capabilities of the Web.
Mark Deuze has perhaps studied the qualities of multimedia storytelling on news Web sites
more than any other media scholar. Deuze draws a distinction between multimedia and online
journalism, noting that “digital storytelling using multiple media can be seen as a potential
but not a necessary element of added value to an online journalistic presentation” (Deuze,
2004, p. 141). Deuze has evaluated news sites for the qualities of “hypertextuality, interactivity
and multimediality,” which he considers the “ideal-typical form of online journalism” (Deuze,
2003, p. 206). According to Deuze, hypertextuality has to do with links within or external
to an online journalism piece; interactivity may be either navigational structures or feedback
mechanisms; multimediality has to do with the media elements used to portray a story.
Deuze’s characteristics are similar but not identical to much of the literature on hypertext
theory. George Landow (1997) identified non- or multilinearity and multivocality as the two
defining characteristics of hypertext. Multilinearity (multiple narrative threads) and multivocal-
ity (multiple perspectives) reflect radically different approaches to storytelling than the simple
navigational structures of most multimedia news pieces. Ted Nelson (1992), the scholar credited
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 65
with coining the term “hypertext,” defined it as “non-sequential writing.” New media theorist
Lev Manovich (2001) described hypertextual stories as “database narratives,” consisting of
fragments of information continuously being regrouped into new patterns.
MIT professor Janet Murray wrote about the narrative forms that hypertextual environments
like the Web have the potential to deliver. In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Murray (1997) described
new media environments as being procedural, participatory, encyclopedic, and spatial. By
“procedural,” she means open to transformation by means of user or other input, with the
aid of computer programming; by “participatory,” she means open to contribution or change
by the user/reader/viewer; by “encyclopedic,” she means an exhaustive or seemingly exhaustive
amount of information about a narrative world; and by “spatial,” she means a narrative structure
that holds within it a sense of “place.” For the purposes of evaluating multimedia packages
published on the Web, we can include the notion of “navigation,” which is rendered concretely
through the user interface of a multimedia package, as included in Murray’s notion of the
spatial.
Another quality that is often missing from the discussion or realization of multimedia news
packages is the concept of an open-ended project. “The business of the computer is always
unfinished. In fact, “unfinish” defines the aesthetic of digital media,” wrote Peter Lunenfeld
(1999, p. 7) in the introduction to his book on digital aesthetics, The Digital Dialectic. Landow
compared the mutable qualities of electronic text to the book, noting that the closed, finished
form of the printed volume does not invite updates but that the open structure of electronic text
demands them (Landow, 1997). Unlike a bound book, printed newspapers are republished every
day. It is likely that the trajectory of the newspaper’s transition from daily printed publication
to continuously updated Web site will bring additional dimensions to the open-ended project
of the Web.
METHODOLOGY
This study looked at 45 multimedia packages published on the New York Times Web site
produced between January 1, 2000, and October 23, 2007. The packages were chosen based
on searches conducted on nytimes.com, which lets users limit searches to stories tagged
as “multimedia.” Because more than 17,000 multimedia packages were published during
this period, the scope of the search was narrowed to three categories chosen to reflect a
representative range of news stories: (a) multimedia packages to which the keyword “election”
applied, (b) multimedia packages to which the keyword “real estate” applied, and (c) multimedia
packages created by New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof. Because every editorial
section of nytimes.com contains multimedia packages, a decision was made to limit the
multimedia search to specific categories as a kind of control on the study that would allow for
more in-depth analysis in a narrower group. Each search turned up dozens of results. One out
of every 10 multimedia packages was reviewed for this study.
“Multimedia” is an imprecise term, but in its most general sense it refers to the construction
of a story out of more than one medium, which is then published on the Web. Because multime-
dia is such an evolving term, this study relies on the classification of stories as multimedia by
nytimes.com through its multimedia search. As the findings show, nytimes.com has evolved its
definition of multimedia by, for example, first including then excluding audio-only packages
66 JACOBSON
in the mix. This evolution of the term multimedia itself is important to understanding the
emerging multimedia forms on newspaper Web sites.
The New York Times was chosen because it is a leader in multimedia and online journalism.
The nytimes.com site officially went online in 1996, making it one of the earlier newspapers
to publish on the Web. The paper had previous online exposure through America Online
(a product called “@Times”), and even a home computer service in the mid-1980s called New
York Pulse.1 According to the annual Project for Excellence in Journalism (2008), the New
York Times Web site nytimes.com attracts more users than any other newspaper Web site. In
2007, nytimes.com won top honors in online information graphic design from the Society for
News Design for their visual representation of the results of the 2006 U.S. midterm elections.
Because the New York Times is a leader in online news, and remains in the forefront of new
media development in journalism, nytimes.com was chosen for the case study.
The three categories of searches were chosen because they represent a range of news stories:
hard news, feature stories, and opinion. The term “election” was chosen because it represents
a category of hard news. The multimedia search returned 108 packages with the keyword
“election,” of which 11 were analyzed. The term “real estate” was chosen because it represented
a category of both hard news and feature pieces. The real estate search returned 276 results,
of which 24 were reviewed.
Nicholas Kristof was a reporter for the New York Times newspaper before he began creating
multimedia pieces for nytimes.com in 2002. His packages are almost all op-ed pieces designed
to persuade the viewer to take a stand on various issues. A multimedia search on “opinion,”
“editorial,” or “op-ed” turned up very partial results, and therefore this study relied on the body
of work created by Kristof to cover this category. The multimedia search returned 120 packages
by Kristof, of which 10 were analyzed.2
Each of the 45 packages underwent a content analysis of its formal narrative properties,
news values, and media choices. Formalism as a framework is often employed in the analysis
of aesthetic works, such as film and literature. The film studies text An Introduction to Film
Criticism defines formalism as “a cinematic or critical approach : : : that stresses form over
content in the belief that meaning occurs in the way that content is presented” (Bywater &
Sobchack, 1989, p. 227). Although it is unusual to use an aesthetic approach in evaluating
news stories, the objective of this study is to begin to understand and evaluate multimedia
news packages on the Web as a new form of journalistic expression. Formal analysis seems an
appropriate method for this purpose. Although this study does use quantitative data as the basis
of its findings, it is important to remember that the study of narrative structure is essentially
qualitative. The content analysis searched for specific formal qualities that would help answer
the following research questions:
RQ1: What formal media elements and interface schemes are present in the story?
Which media elements were used in multimedia storytelling, and in what combinations? To
what extent, if any, were innovative interfaces created for multimedia news?
1The author of this study was an employee of New York Pulse.2Some of the multimedia packages returned from the search were eliminated from consideration because of
duplicate results.
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 67
RQ2: Whose perspective is the multimedia story told from?
To what extent do the packages rely on the traditional third-person reporting technique of most
news stories? Do the stories incorporate the work of nonjournalists and citizen journalists?
RQ3: To what extent, if any, are hypertextual narrative structures present in the package?
Do multimedia packages adopt some of the qualities of hypertext, as outlined by hypertext
scholars, including multilinearity and multivocality (Landow); nonsequential writing (Nelson);
database narratives (Manovich); procedural, encyclopedic, participatory and spatial storytelling
techniques (Murray)?
RQ4: What is the relationship between the online multimedia content and material published
in the printed edition of the New York Times?
Is the multimedia package a Web addition to a printed article that appeared in the New York
Times? Does the package contain new or additional information from the printed text? Is the
multimedia package a Web-only feature without a related print article?
FINDINGS
The findings in this study fall into two categories: first, some general observations about the
total number of multimedia packages published on nytimes.com from 2000 to 2007, and second,
the specific characteristics of the 45 packages that are the focus of this study.
Multimedia Packages Published from January 2000 to October 2007
The number of multimedia packages produced by the New York Times has grown every
year since 2001 but took a huge sevenfold leap from 2001 to 2002, the biggest percentage
increase between any two years from 2000 to 2007 (see Figure 1). It is possible that the
growth of multimedia packages is related to the aftermath of September 11, when the photos,
oral histories, and even recorded voice mail messages of ordinary citizens were turned into
multimedia memorials on the Web.3 Fifty of the 1,204 multimedia packages produced in 2002
were published on September 11, 2002, strongly suggesting that the documentation of events
related to September 11, 2001, provided significant momentum for multimedia journalism on
nytimes.com.
Although the total number of multimedia packages published on nytimes.com has increased
every year from 2000 to 2007, the overall format of the packages has changed. The nytimes.com
Web site indexes four categories of multimedia packages: Audio, Slide Show, Interactive
Feature, and Video. Audio refers to a single recording of audio-only content. Slide Show refers
3For example: September 11: A Memorial (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/); The Sonic Memorial
Project (http://www.sonicmemorial.org/); 911 Memorial (http://www.cbs.com/specials/911/).
68 JACOBSON
FIGURE 1 Total Multimedia Packages Published on the nytimes.com Web site, January 1, 2000–October 23,
2007.
to a series of photos without audio. Video refers to a single recording of video. Interactive
Feature covers all other formats and may refer to an audio slideshow, an interactive graphic,
or even a series of audio and video clips arranged in a menu.
The Slide Show category has grown from close to 0% in 2000 and 2001 to close to 50%
for every year from 2004 to 2006 and 2007 as of October 23, 2007. Audio-only programming
has decreased from a high of about 20% in 2002 to close to 0% in 2006 and 2007. These num-
bers are deceiving, however, because the New York Times recategorized audio-only packages,
removing them from the multimedia section after 2003.
More than 80% of multimedia packages produced in 2000 were classified as “video,”
and although the total number of video packages has increased every year, the percentage
of multimedia packages classified as “video” reached slightly more than 30% for the years
2006 and 2007 as of October 23, 2007. The nytimes.com Web site introduced a daily video
feature in 2006 when it launched a redesign of the site featuring a video section “prominently”
displayed on the front page (Apcar, 2006).
Most Frequently Encountered Characteristics in the Study Sample
Based on the most frequently occurring features in the study sample of 45, most of the
multimedia packages were feature stories instead of hard news (62.7% to 6.2%, respectively).
The average piece was just as likely to have a light or humorous tone as it was to have a
neutral tone, and it was less likely to have a serious tone (17 of the 45 packages had a light
tone, 17 had a neutral tone, and 11 had a more serious tone).
Most packages were likely to have text, photos, and audio and less likely to incorporate
video, animation, and graphics. Most packages were Web-only enhancements to stories printed
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 69
in the New York Times newspaper (32 of 45), but 13 had no corresponding print story, meaning
they had been produced exclusively for the Web audience. An emerging group of 6 multimedia
packages were linked to Web-only textual content, such as a blog—a trend that is likely to
continue, given Sulzberger’s commitment to the Web.
First-person address, whether by nonjournalists or Times reporters producing their own
multimedia packages, was the most pervasive point of view in all of the multimedia packages,
present in 26 of 45 (see Figure 2). First-person address has the effect of creating a sense
of intimacy between the reporter and the Web audience, even if the reporter is speaking as
an objective observer of events. First-person delivery seems to be a method used to create the
feeling of a conversation between the reporter and the Web audience, even when the dialogue is
only one way—that is, when there are no robust feedback mechanisms, such as an opportunity
to comment on the material.
In 2006 and 2007 the number of traditional third-person reports equaled the number of first-
person reports, an indication that presentation of the two styles of reporting may be evening
out. Nonjournalists, all reporting in the first person, were the primary voices in 16, or 35.6%, of
the multimedia packages. Twelve of these packages were Web enhancements to stories written
by New York Times reporters published in the newspaper, suggesting an interesting model for
professional–citizen collaborations across media. New York Times reporters were the primary
voice in the majority of the Web packages (57.8%).
Overall, the packages did not register many of the more robust qualities of hypertext. As
defined by Deuze, all of the package in this study could be said to incorporate the quality
of “multimediality,” or multiple media formats; most incorporate “interactivity” in the form
FIGURE 2 Incidence of first-person narration in the 45 selected multimedia packages.
70 JACOBSON
of navigational structures, even if these structures are as simple as a “next” button in a
photo slideshow; and some incorporate “hypertextuality,” or links to related material. However,
evidence of multilinearity, “non-sequential writing,” and database narratives appear in only the
most dilute form of the packages in this study, and could be applied, if at all, only to the
database of multimedia packages as a whole.
One package used multiple perspectives as a central method of organization to tell the
story. In “Voices from Anoka, Minnesota,”4 several voters spoke of their voting preferences
during the 2006 U.S. midterm elections in an audio-only presentation. There was no reporter’s
overview included in the series of audio sound bites, although the names of the producers were
prominent, and we can assume in listening to each of the voters that the producers edited the
content in such a way to create a kind of narrative. It could also be said that these snippets
of audio directly from the voters’ perspective formed a kind of database narrative as defined
by Manovich, as the user has the ability to control which stories and in what order to play
them. However, there was no method for navigating the content of the audio presentations of
the Minnesota voters without listening to each of the audio segments all the way through, for a
total of more than 20 min, which is long by Web standards. This situation points to a potential
need to develop an interface that would allow the Web audience to better navigate an extended
audio presentation.
Only one other package, also from the Election keyword group, used a similar interface
strategy. “Winning Words”5 featured audio speech segments from seven senatorial and guber-
natorial winners in the 2004 U.S. election. Although several perspectives are represented in
this piece without a reporter’s overview, these audio segments do not have the same multivocal
feel of the voters in Anoka, Minnesota, perhaps because the speakers all have similar things
to say.
Many of the Real Estate packages feature nonjournalists narrating their own stories about
their living situations. Their audio presentations are connected to stories written by New York
Times reporters, creating a kind of multiperspectival story that perhaps reflects the interest of
news organizations in incorporating the voices of “citizen journalists.”
None of the packages was truly open ended. The readers of the New York Times are not
invited to contribute their own stories to these packages, many of which have a traditional
beginning–middle–end narrative arc. The Times did not allow its readers to comment directly
on its news stories when these packages were published.6 Reader comments are isolated from
the stories they reference in a central discussion area, or connected to a blog connected to the
story. The nytimes.com Web site probably initiated this policy in an effort to curb inappropriate
comments, but it is a move away from the hypertextual qualities of “unfinish,” and Murray’s
notion of new media narratives as participatory.
Manovich’s concept of a “database narrative” can be applied only in the broadest sense,
and most effectively to the group of packages as a whole. Most of the multimedia pieces
had a traditional linear narrative structure of beginning–middle–end. They could perhaps be
4See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/10/06/us/20061011_VOICES_AUDIOSS.html.5See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2002/11/06/politics/20021106_elex_WORDS_FEATURE.html.6In 2008 the Times started linking a comments section to some of its news stories. See http://www.nytimes.com/ref/
membercenter/faq/comments.html for information on nytimes.com’s policy on comments.
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 71
considered fragments of a database narrative in the larger sense that each package could be
retrieved from a search engine as one of many “hits” on a given topic.
A few packages did seem to embrace some of Murray’s qualities of being procedural,
participatory, encyclopedic, and spatial. Only one package in the study, “Republican Debate:
Analyzing the Details,”7 exhibited all of these qualities. In this piece about the October 2007
Republican presidential primary debate, the audience may choose to watch a video of the
debate from start to finish or view a section of the debate by selecting a section of the written
transcript (available in its entirety) and watching the corresponding video. In an impressive use
of data visualization techniques, it is possible to see which candidate spoke, when, and for how
long by zooming out on the transcript as a whole, which is color-coded for each candidate.
This piece met all four of Murray’s criteria: The content was encyclopedic in the exhaustive
manner it presented the text and video of the debate; the interface was spatial, in that it invited
the audience to navigate the video by using the text and navigate the text by using the video,
and through its use of data visualization to allow users to see at what point each candidate
spoke; the interface was also procedural in the way that it created a bridge between the text
and the video; and the interface enabled audience participation by allowing users to selectively
choose which segments of the debate to watch, read, or analyze.
The next sections discuss some of the characteristics of each search.
Keyword: Election
The 11 election pieces covered a broad range of big stories, including the 2000 Florida
recount, the 2002 U.S. midterm elections, the 2003 recall election in California, the 2004
U.S. presidential election, the 2005 elections in Iraq, the 2006 U.S. midterm elections, and
the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Perhaps because these are big, complicated stories these
packages were more likely to employ multiple media elements and showed the most developed
hypertextual qualities.
The comprehensive package on the 2005 Iraq elections and the package on the October 2007
Republican presidential primary debate are perhaps the most in-depth election stories. “Election
in Iraq”8 includes a discussion of the complex and lengthy Iraqi ballot, profiles of many of the
candidates, an interactive timeline of events leading up to the election, and an audio slideshow
with photos that gives some background on the event. The comprehensiveness of this piece is
also its weakness, however, as multiple layers of information are buried within the interface,
making some of the features easy to overlook and difficult to retrieve on a return visit. It might
have been more effective if this piece had featured each of the segments separately instead of
bundling and linking everything together through one interface.
By contrast, the excellent interface of the Republican primary presidential debate revealed
the comprehensiveness of the package. This package is one of the most recently published
ones in the sample study, published in October 2007, and reflects a much higher degree of
sophistication in user interface and information design.
7See http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/08/us/politics/20071008_DEBATE_GRAPHIC.html#video.8See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/01/19/international/20050119_iraq_ELECTIONS_GRAPHIC
4.html.
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Only 2 of the 11 election packages incorporated first-person narratives (“Voices from Enoka,
Minnesota” and “Winning Words”), compared to 9 of the 10 packages produced by Kristof or
13 of the 24 real estate packages.
Keyword: Real Estate
The 24 real estate packages made up more than half of the total packages in this study.
Beginning in 2004, the Times began to feature nonjournalists telling their own stories about
their homes, recording their own audio that was later edited by Times staff and accompanied by
photos taken by Times photographers. (Some of the slideshows included photos taken by the
subjects themselves.) For example, in the May 28, 2006, piece titled “With an Architect’s Eye,”9
Ha Lim Lee and Ed Tachibana described the dark and cramped apartment that they rebuilt into
a more open space. The first photo shows the two of them posing in their apartment with their
cat and their dog. “Hi, I’m Ha Lim, and this is my husband, Ed Tachibana,” Lee said. The
photo caption identifies Motor the cat and Bijoux the dog. Ha Lim narrated the piece, a tour of
their apartment, postrenovations. Her husband chimed in from time to time, and even Bijoux
gave an audible head shake at the end. Included in the slide show, along with photos taken
by the Times photographer, are photos that the couple took of their apartment when they first
moved in as well as an image of the revised floor plan they created.
The first-person narration personalizes the story of Lee and Tachibana and provides a sense
of authenticity to the Times’ coverage that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate
in the printed newspaper. The related story that appeared in the print edition of the New York
Times, written by reporter Dan Shaw, focused more on the financial constraints that Lee and
Tachibana faced when looking for an apartment. Bijoux and Motor were not mentioned at all.
Thirteen of the 24 multimedia packages in the real estate section included in this study used
first-person audio narration by nonjournalists to tell stories about living in a broad range of
habitats—from a yurt in Wyoming10 to a New York City apartment with a ghost.11 All of the
first-person multimedia accounts from the real estate search were linked to related articles that
had appeared in the print edition of the New York Times. The written stories in the Times reflect
more the business side of the stories, whereas the Web supplements focus on the first-person
experiences of the subjects, suggesting an interesting model of how citizen and professional
journalists can work together in print and on the Web.
Keyword: Kristof
Seven of the 10 Kristof packages were multimedia versions of his op-ed columns and sought
to persuade the Times audience to take action for a cause or take a stance on an issue. Kristof
addressed the Web audience in the first person in 8 of the 10 packages, much as he does in
his op-ed columns.
9See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/05/28/realestate/20060528_HABI_AUDIOSS.html.10See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/09/08/realestate/keymagazine/20060910_HOMESTEAD_
FEATURE.html.11See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/10/30/realestate/20051030_GHOST_AUDIOSS.html.
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 73
The 10 multimedia packages produced by Kristof reflected the greatest diversity of media
elements when compared to the real estate and election keyword packages. Video was used
in only 10 of the 45 packages in this study, and 7 of the 10 were Kristof’s packages. Two
of Kristof’s 10 pieces used a combination of animation, video, audio, and still photographs in
one presentation. For example, “Why Should We Care,”12 a package published in 2005, begins
with the scanned image of a letter sent in by one of Kristof’s regular readers that asks, “Why
should Americans care about what’s happening in Darfur?” We hear an audio voice-over of
Kristof explaining the origin of the letter, and then a video window appears showing Kristof
standing next to a woman from Darfur, whom he introduces to the audience as “Mabula.” The
rest of the presentation consists of a series of still photographs with Kristof providing an audio
voice-over, telling the story of Mabula and the atrocities that she has faced as a result of the
unrest in Darfur. At one point in the presentation we see a photo of President Bush and an
animated calendar as Kristof counts the number of days it has been since the president has said
anything about the situation in Darfur. The presentation ends with a screen that shows links to
other stories related to this presentation, including the op-ed piece that appeared in the printed
edition of the New York Times.
The only other multimedia packages to use such a broad array of media elements to tell a
story were the extensive packages found in the “election” keyword search. In the case of the
election stories, multiple media were used to render complex stories more comprehensible. In
the case of Kristof’s work it is likely that, as an opinion writer, he felt freer to experiment with
the expressive qualities of multimedia.
But experimentation is not always successful. One of the least effective uses of video in the
packages evaluated for this study was an extended piece produced by Kristof in January 2006
titled “We All Did It.”13 This package consisted of a lengthy video (more than 5 min) to tell the
story of how a neighborhood in India banded together to stop a local gangster from terrorizing
them. The video segment is long for presentation on the Web, considering that the length of
videos on YouTube, the most visited site on the Web for video content, is generally cited as
about 2 min.14 The interface has only simple on/off video controls with a slider, so there is no
meaningful way to navigate the material other than to let it play through all 5-plus min. By
comparison, the interface used for most of the audio-and-photo slide show packages lets the
users control the rate at which they scan through the photos and read the accompanying text
to get a sense of the story (even if the audio portion goes unheard). The simple video interface
does not provide a way to jump around or preview or otherwise navigate the content.
The audio slideshow interface approaches Nelson’s notion of nonsequential writing, in that
it allows the audience to decide whether to experience the multimedia package as a linear
narrative. This kind of interactivity is absent from traditional video presentations, which are
inherently linear. Although VCR controls are available on many of the packages, allowing
users to fast-forward or rewind through the material, the audience still makes meaning from
the content by watching the video in its sequential order. The lack of an easily navigated video
interface perhaps suggests a need and an opportunity to develop one.
12See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/05/31/opinion/20050531_DARFUR_AUDIOSS.html.13See http://select.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/01/15/opinion/20060115_KRISTOF_VIDEO.html.14A USA Today article says the average YouTube video is “typically” two minutes in length, but a specific number
is hard to come by (“YouTube Serves Up,” 2006).
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CONCLUSIONS
The goal of this study was to begin to understand some of the emerging characteristics of
multimedia news packages on the Web, using a limited case study of multimedia packages
published on nytimes.com as a baseline for further study. One finding from this study sug-
gests that multimedia news packages may not have yet embraced the qualities of hypertext
as theorized by Nelson, Landow, and Manovich, specifically the concepts of multilinearity,
multivocality, and open-ended narrative. The reasons for this may include McLuhan’s notion
that the first content for a new medium is an older medium, meaning that because we are
still in the earliest stages of journalism on the Web the news creators are producing the
kinds of stories they are most familiar with, much like the first automobile was called the
“horseless carriage.” Another reason may be related to the degree of control that professional
journalists have traditionally exerted over the news product. New trends in the news industry,
such as citizen journalism, will start to weaken this centralized control, and the spirit of a
journalism that embraces more of hypertext’s characteristics would certainly support a move
away from hierarchical control in favor of the rhizomatic structure of the Web. A move away
from centralized control of information also supports the libertarian view of the role of the
press in a democratic society.
The use of first-person narration by nonjournalists in Web-only multimedia enhancements
to stories printed in the New York Times was one of the most frequently encountered formats
in this study. Some of the most interesting packages were published in this format, and many
of them were found in the real estate search. The combination of a more traditional (and
therefore, perhaps, authoritative) news story written by a reporter with the first-person narrative
of the nonjournalist subjects in a cross-media collaboration is a powerful one that may extend
beyond the real estate section. The news industry has begun to incorporate the voices of
“citizen” journalists in their product. The term “citizen journalism” often references videos or
photos contributed to professional news products by nonjournalists who happened to witness
a newsworthy event. More recently, nonjournalists have begun to contribute postings to blogs
sponsored by news organizations, often in conjunction with “hyperlocal” journalism projects.
The criticism that accompanies these contributions often questions their accuracy, quality, and
transparency. The hybrid model suggested by the Times’ packages, where the journalist, or
even an editor, is a partner in the produced piece, can address these criticisms.
The combination of professional journalists collaborating with nonjournalists provides per-
haps the most promising vehicle for truly multiperspectival stories on news Web sites, although
this approach may limit the number of nonjournalist voices that can participate in these col-
laborations. Multivocal participation, where everyone has at least the opportunity to contribute
to the narrative, is perhaps at the heart of the democratic enterprise. New forms of journalistic
storytelling may emerge that may ease the tension between editors, who want to vet content,
and nonjournalists, who want to express themselves. But it has not happened yet.
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com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm
APPENDIX
Multimedia Packages Evaluated for This Study
Search Word: Kristof (10 packages by Nicholas Kristof)
Title: Nicholas Kristof talks about a family road trip to Maine in a 24-foot RV.
Publication Date: July 12, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2002/07/12/travel/20020714_CAMPING_audioSS.htm
Title: Tehran’s “Den of Spies”
Publication Date: May 5, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/05/05/opinion/20040505_IRAN_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Brother, Spare a Brigade?
Publication Date: December 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/11/opinion/20041211_BALTICS_FEATURE.html
Title: Why Should We Care?
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/05/31/opinion/20050531_DARFUR_AUDIOSS.html
Title: The Constant Crisis
Publication Date: October 10, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/10/10/timesselect/20051011_KRISTOF_AUDIOSS.html
76 JACOBSON
Title: “We All Did It”
Publication Date: January 15, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/01/15/opinion/20060115_KRISTOF_VIDEO.html
Title: Your Turn to Tell the Story
Publication Date: December 2, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/12/02/opinion/20061204_CHAD_slideshow_index.html
Title: Mukhtar’s Refuge
Publication Date: April 7, 2007
http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_storyDf2a07801f51abca79cb0e2b00efa295122b74cc3
Title: Christianity in China
Publication Date: May 25, 2007
http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_storyD50bf9ff6e1fbc71f0299128669ebcbe787e7e4be
Title: Win a Trip: A Boat Out of Congo
Publication Date: June 22, 2007
http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_storyD9e56142332dd3767dae5d0fa1c67110553826e9d
Search Word: Election (11 packages with keyword Election)
Title: Examining the Florida Vote: Inside the Balloting
Publication Date: November 12, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2001/11/12/politics/20031112_recount_BALLOT_GRAPHIC.html
Title: Winning Words
Publication Date: November 6, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2002/11/06/politics/20021106_elex_WORDS_FEATURE.html
Title: The California Recall
Publication Date: August 7, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/audiopages/2003/08/07/multimedia/20030807_RECALL_AUDIO.html
Title: Political Points
Publication Date: August 7, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/videopages/2004/08/07/multimedia/20040807_POINTS_VIDEO.html
Title: Election 2004: A Divided Electorate
Publication Date: November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/11/03/politics/20041103_px_ELECT_GRAPHIC.html
Title: Election in Iraq: The Overall Timeline
Publication Date: January 19, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/01/19/international/20050119_iraq_ELECTIONS_GRAPHIC4.html
Title: Voices From Anoka, Minn.
Publication Date: October 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/10/06/us/20061011_VOICES_AUDIOSS.html
Title: The Senate Changes Hands
Publication Date: November 8, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/11/08/us/20061109_SENATE_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Rudy Giuliani’s Children
Publication Date: March 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/02/us/politics/20070303_RUDY_SLIDESHOW_index
EMERGING MODELS OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM 77
Title: Meet Me at the Fair
Publication Date: August 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/17/us/politics/20070817_IOWA_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Republican Debate: Analyzing the Details
Publication Date: October 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/08/us/politics/20071008_DEBATE_GRAPHIC.html#video
Search Word: Real Estate (24 packages with keyword Real Estate)
Title: Real Estate
Publication Date: September 2, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2002/09/02/business/020902_MOST_GRAPHIC.html
Title: Habitats: A Gut Wrenching Renovation in Sag Harbor
Publication Date: June 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/06/18/realestate/20040620_HABITATS_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Habitats: Design Therapy
Publication Date: October 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/10/17/realestate/20041017_HABITATS_AUDIOSS.html
Title: The Hunt: The Nightmare Move
Publication Date: December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/19/realestate/20041219_HUNT_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Habitats: The Suburban Loft
Publication Date: February 6, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/02/06/realestate/20050206_HABITATS_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Habitats: Art in the Projects
Publication Date: April 10, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/04/10/realestate/20050410_HABI_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Habitats: A Trick of the Eye
Publication Date: May 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/05/29/realestate/20050529_HABI_AUDIOSS.html
Title: An Oasis in a Toxic World
Publication Date: July 10, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/07/10/realestate/20050710_SNOWFLAKE_AUDIOSS.html
Title: New Loft, Adopted Furniture
Publication Date: August 28, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/08/28/realestate/20050828_HABI_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Prewar Apt., Ghost Included
Publication Date: October 30, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/10/30/realestate/20051030_GHOST_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Home Is Where the Hearth Is
Publication Date: December 25, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/12/25/realestate/20051225_HABI_AUDIOSS.html
Title: A Cleveland Case
Publication Date: February 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/02/21/business/20060220_HOME_AUDIOSS.html
78 JACOBSON
Title: Audio Slide Show: With an Architect’s Eye
Publication Date: May 28, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/05/28/realestate/20060528_HABI_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Slide Show: Beach Bliss
Publication Date: July 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/07/21/realestate/20060726_CAPE_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Slide Show: Up, Up and Away
Publication Date: August 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/08/06/realestate/20060726_NAPA_AERIAL_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Good Taste
Publication Date: August 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/08/20/realestate/20060726_NAPA_WINE_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Homesteads
Publication Date: September 8, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/09/08/realestate/keymagazine/20060910_HOMESTEAD_FEATURE.html
Title: Mid-Century Modern in Palm Springs
Publication Date: December 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/12/21/realestate/greathomes/20061222_PALMSPRINGS_AUDIOSS.html
Title: Tel Aviv’s Manhattan Makeover
Publication Date: March 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/08/realestate/greathomes/20070309_ISRAEL_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Second Homes in Aspen
Publication Date: April 26, 2007
http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_storyD82f16901a88029480a22ef2b25b4d011ba3c7e0d
Title: Water as an Inspiration
Publication Date: June 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2007/06/15/realestate/20070617_COV_FEATURE.html
Title: Construction Progress
Publication Date: August 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/30/realestate/20070830_DREAMHOME_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: Life in Sullivan County
Publication Date: September 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/21/travel/escapes/20070921_HAVENS_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Title: All About the Ocean
Publication Date: October 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/05/travel/escapes/20071005_HAVENS_SLIDESHOW_index.html
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