Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Storytelling: Slideshow


Reporting news is not all about writing on paper. News story can be presented in many ways, especially true in the era of multimedia and online journalism.

News can be presented with just a single, tell-it-all photo or video. But today I learned about using slideshow (with/without audio) to report the news.

Some news outlet will just build an online gallery for certain news topic. Some choose to add audio (narration, music, interview) in it. Regardless the ending output, slideshow can be a strong reporting tool.

One example I found in the Internet is a slideshow at the Seattle Times about Black Friday shopping in 2010

The slideshow, created by Associated Press in 2010, was published at the Black Friday. It gives an element of news story: timeliness.

In a way, the slideshow tells the audience the process of the biggest shopping day in the U.S. It starts by showing pictures of people lining (read: camping) up the night before the shops were opened. It then proceeds to pictures of the busy cashiers and shopkeepers, customers with trolley full of goods. It ends with people moving their items into cars.

The slideshow also tells the audience that despite the recession, people’s buying power did not decline. In fact, some customers pay with cash. It questions if the Americans are really affected by recession.

The narration helps the audience understanding the message in a better way. Should it was just a gallery of photos, it wouldn’t be so informative. The narrator tells the audience what the photos are about, what is behind them.

No comments:

Post a Comment