Emerging Models of Multimedia Journalism: A Content ... · Deuze’s characteristics are similar but not identical to much of the literature on hypertext theory. George Landow (1997)

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.


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


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.


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.

72 JACOBSON

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.


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).

74 JACOBSON

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?


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


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


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


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


http://www.nytimes.com/videopages/2004/08/07/multimedia/20040807_POINTS_VIDEO.html

Title: Election 2004: A Divided Electorate


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.


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/10/06/us/20061011_VOICES_AUDIOSS.html

Title: The Senate Changes Hands


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


Title: Meet Me at the Fair


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/17/us/politics/20070817_IOWA_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: Republican Debate: Analyzing the Details


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


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/06/18/realestate/20040620_HABITATS_AUDIOSS.html

Title: Habitats: Design Therapy



Title: The Hunt: The Nightmare Move


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/19/realestate/20041219_HUNT_AUDIOSS.html

Title: Habitats: The Suburban Loft

Publication Date: February 6, 2005


Title: Habitats: Art in the Projects


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/04/10/realestate/20050410_HABI_AUDIOSS.html

Title: Habitats: A Trick of the Eye



Title: An Oasis in a Toxic World


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/07/10/realestate/20050710_SNOWFLAKE_AUDIOSS.html

Title: New Loft, Adopted Furniture



Title: Prewar Apt., Ghost Included


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/10/30/realestate/20051030_GHOST_AUDIOSS.html

Title: Home Is Where the Hearth Is



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



Title: Slide Show: Beach Bliss


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/07/21/realestate/20060726_CAPE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: Slide Show: Up, Up and Away


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/08/06/realestate/20060726_NAPA_AERIAL_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: Good Taste


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/08/20/realestate/20060726_NAPA_WINE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: Homesteads


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/09/08/realestate/keymagazine/20060910_HOMESTEAD_FEATURE.html

Title: Mid-Century Modern in Palm Springs


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


http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?fr_storyD82f16901a88029480a22ef2b25b4d011ba3c7e0d

Title: Water as an Inspiration


http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2007/06/15/realestate/20070617_COV_FEATURE.html

Title: Construction Progress


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/30/realestate/20070830_DREAMHOME_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: Life in Sullivan County


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/21/travel/escapes/20070921_HAVENS_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Title: All About the Ocean


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/05/travel/escapes/20071005_HAVENS_SLIDESHOW_index.html

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