One of the more common complaints Ive heard over nearly four decades as a journalist is what readers see as a shortage of context in their news. Most of my time was spent in the print media, where the limitation was newsprint. But radio and television programs obviously suffer a similar shortage of airtime necessary to provide more historical and other background to the days events. And with all traditional media, what you see is what everybody gets.
By contrast, the relative lack of such constraints is one of the most powerful attractions that ultimately drew journalists like me to the Internet. We talked about the unlimited news hole of cyberspace, which would enable us to provide a much more complete picture of events, with layers of background to satisfy the hungriest of news junkies, multimedia tools to enrich our storytelling, and interactivity that would allow users to personalize their experience.
What got me thinking about this recently was the Digital Journalism Credibility Study, commissioned by the Online News Association, an organization of news professionals and others interested in the development of online journalism. Among other things, the study showed that the online public considers the completeness of a story second only to accuracy of the information as a measure of credibility ahead of fairness of reporting, and the reputation of the news source, among other characteristics.
But despite all those apparently obvious advantages of online journalism to be more comprehensive, nearly 50 percent of online Americans responding to the ONA study said theyre neutral on whether online sites actually provide the most complete picture of the news. About 18 percent agreed that it does, while 34 percent said it doesnt.
There are doubtless a number of reasons for this gap between promise and realization. The ONA study also showed that Americans are using online news in addition to traditional media rather than using online news instead of traditional sources. That may make them less likely to take full advantage of online news. Certainly, many of us underestimated the natural inertia involved in shifting from mostly passive to a more interactive medium. And typical Internet connection speeds, while increasing as more users adopt DSL and cable modems, still leave many unable to fully appreciate multimedia and interactive story telling.
Another reason Ive been thinking about this is some recent recognition of MSNBC.com as online journalisms leading edge in making creative use of the Internets capabilities to more fully inform its users. The site recently won four of seven first-place Web awards in the 2002 National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism contest. Judges pointed particularly to two multimedia stories on the site:
“Aging in America, which the judges called a paragon for still-photography and audio storytelling on the web, raising the bar for online newsroomsOffering incredible depth, the packages emotional connection furthers the issue of aging in America for the reader and moves the issue in the realm of public discussion.
“Attack on America,”which the judges said was the unanimous, first-place winner over Sept. 11-related packages by such competitors as Time magazine and the Washington Post because of its unprecedented depth, story-telling, imagery, design, usability and information. Click here for access to this still-growing package of in-depth, multimedia, and interactive features.
Those award-winning features are only the tip of the comprehensive story-telling iceberg on the site. When I checked on April 1, the top four articles in the news section included 54 links to related articles, video clips, slide shows, interactive fact files, thumbnail country profiles and other supplementary material. Its the sweet spot in this medium, says Brian Storm, MSNBC.coms director of multimedia. The Web should rule in the area of completeness.
MSNBC.com has put extraordinary emphasis on enhanced story-telling techniques since it began nearly six years ago. At times the site was criticized for leading the target by too large a margin, offering rich Web pages of information to an audience whose Internet connection speeds were still far to slow for users to appreciate the material.
But for the increasing number of users able to take full advantage of multimedia and interactive features, they go a long way toward dealing with that context issue.
Im a particular fan of the interactive backgrounders found with many MSNBC.com news and feature articles “Searching for Peace, related to the Mideast conflict; “The Global Dragnet, searching for associates of the Sept. 11 hijackers; thumbnail profiles of Supreme Court Justices “Supreme Court Justices, and a “Roadmap to the Supreme Court, used with stories about high court cases. And a timely package on allergies features two very comprehensive interactive applications that help you learn more the causes and treatments of allergies.
Angela Clark, MSNBC.coms director of interactive content, says recent informal internal tests suggest that up to 30 percent of all users who access an article now look as well at any related interactive file included on the story page. There are more than 1,000 such interactive applications in the current library available to producers to enhance the breadth and depth of stories on the site, says Clark.
Some stories on the site are entirely interactive. Examples include a team-by-team review of the just-started 2002 professional baseball season, and a nostalgic look at driving vacations through the decades Another useful application is the Health sections interactive personal health check-up
This is the type of journalism that only exists on the Web, and while its still in its relative infancy, users who dont take advantage of it are missing a lot.
