Embracing Multimedia

Today, along with my fellow journalism majors, submitted a story to the Community News Commons (check it out why don't you).

There was a catch to this assignment however: we all had to incorporate at least two types of media into our story: print, audio, video, and/or pictures.

I had never done this before. All of my work previous to this had been 100% written words. In publications, it would be accompanied by a photograph taken by someone else but never before have I had to merge two styles of media into one story.

And I think it turned out pretty well.

With wrestling going through a whirlwind of being out and then back in the Olympics Games in a seven-month span this year, I pitched to interview local wrestlers (not these guys, these ones) about their thoughts on what transpired.

I ended up having a terrific chat with Adrian Bruce, who is the head coach of the University of Winnipeg wrestling program and has been involved with the sport provincially and nationally. At one point, he gave me a terrific response to the rule changes wrestling has implemented after being dropped from the Games and which ultimately led to them regaining status as an Olympic sport.

There was one problem: I couldn't fit it in my story. To quote him would be too long in written format and for someone like me, who knows very little about wrestling, paraphrasing would not be a good idea. Much of what Bruce was trying to convey to me would literally be lost in translation.

However, publishing online gave me the option to include the audio clip of Bruce explaining important rule changes inside my article. If the reader wants to find out more, they now have the option of listening to a :90 clip from an expert rather then a jot-note paragraph written out by me. Having that option available allowed me to publish what I think is a better overall story.

To wrap up, if I ever come across an opportunity to use different types of media in a story going forward, I say yes every day of the week and twice on Sundays. I think it gives any story a more complete feel and does a better job at engaging readers.