By: Nina Carlsen
Multiplatform journalism allows for creativity and collaboration to ensue. When done correctly, a journalistic piece is enhanced through the practices of multiplatform journalism. When done incorrectly, chaos and distraction likely follow.
"Multimedia is often defined as the use of various elements: text, audio, photos, video, graphics, and animation" said Journalism Professor at Rowan University, Mark Berkey-Gerard.
To reflect on Berkey-Gerard's summary of multimedia, a multimedia journalist is therefore someone who utilizes skill to combine those various journalistic elements to make an engaging and methodical piece of writing.
As a result of viewing multiplatform journalistic pieces it becomes obvious that, with a plethora of tempting elements, journalists can get carried away with the over-inclusion of content.
An example of this can be seen in this article by Kevin Mcgill and Jay Reeves for the Associated Press: https://www.stltoday.com/news/national/hurricane-ida-makes-landfall-in-louisiana-with-major-force/article_9367d4ff-76ea-52f2-b202-b3ea636bae3b.html. The article provides a video, graphic, text and photo element for readers. The article, although well-written, includes a content overload which might distract readers from the main topic at hand.
Journalism's ever-changing nature does provide positives for multi-media journalists as well. With multiplatform journalism, balance is essential. The technique of balancing between elements such as video, audio, graphics etc. and the text of an article is what makes journalistic pieces competitive in the current media. Good journalism today is being able to create and utilize these extra elements to strengthen a piece of writing.
Here are a few examples of articles including infographics that are directly related to the article's main content and enhance the viewing experience for the reader: https://www.the-scientist.com/infographics. The use of these infographics allow readers to visualize the written content and ideally would further inform and educate them. The writers of these pieces deliberately placed the chosen infographics in order to explain scientific concepts that, otherwise, could be objectively difficult for many people to understand with just a text component.
To master multiplatform journalism is to follow the media closely and gain an in depth understanding of what your audience needs from the piece that they are reading.
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