Multimedia is Dead: The case for Massively Multiple Media (M3) for online news services

There is an ongoing debate in both academia and the media industry about the meaning of the term multimedia. The distinction is subtle so I will illustrate with examples. On the one hand there are those who argue that there is a distinction between multi- and multiple- media, by pointing out that putting some video next to some text does not equate to proper multimedia in terms of both presentation and user-experience. The true multimedia, by this definition, is something more than the sum of its parts AND something that has a form of its own that is recognisable. In other words, true multimedia is a different type of story-telling that fuses different types of media into a new cohesive form.

This is a point worth considering, because the reality is that the only dramatically new form of storytelling to emerge as a result of new media is the video/computer game. There are of course other new hybrids forms like blogging, like podcasting, like videocasting, like geo-tagged microblogging, like folksonomical aggregation and so on. Each of these are variations of audio or video representations of real people or things involved in some or other activity, or text. The computer game is a representation of a simulation, which is a dramatic shift from anything we have experienced before and has been made possible exclusively by the technology available to us. The only equatable experience, historically, would be a kind of impromptu theatrical production where the audience can join or leave the cast of performers during the actual show.

With this in mind, the ideal of multimedia as a fusion of different and distinct media forms available to us today seems idealistic. In the news and journalism practice, there are two paths to multimedia production that stand out and that influence the way journalists perceive this distinction. The first group have reached multimedia in a way that bypassed the web. This group were impatient in the early days of the Web and embraced the CD-Rom format for multimedia storytelling. The interfaces were rich combinations of video, audio, 3D artistry and text, though text was not the emphasis. To an extent, this is the closest we have yet come to that ideal of multimedia. The second group came via the Web, with a focus primarily on text and photos. They followed the development of FutureSplash, which later become Macromedia Flash and now Adobe Flash, with eagerness because the scriptable environment and video capabilities finally meant that creative storytellers could break out of the constraints of HTML and the lowest common denominator capabilities of the browser.

But as it so often happens in life, those who were impatient and adopted technology early have found themselves needing to reinvent themselves and their conception of the work they do. Those who prefer the rich user experience now have to come to terms with the fact that broadband and the advent of Web 2 has changed the way people consume news online. Users now have the capacity to view videos of the size that previously could only be delivered sensibly via a disc and accessed locally.

User Experience Dissonance

An even greater challenge to the CD/Rich media approach is that the user experience was subtly but fundamentally different. The user would site down in front of a computer, purposefully insert the disc and focus all her attention on the story unfolding on her screen. Generally the multimedia application would run in full-screen mode and block out all other interaction with the computer until that experience is terminated by the user. The navigation was also different from the rest of the Operating System and took creative and sometimes challenging forms. The historical timeline, the grouping of content in chapters or logical topics units, parts of which must be consumed in a linear fashion, especially video clips.

To an extent this was a weakness of the form – that functionally the user was required to constantly modulate her interaction from active to passive. It was, however, possible because the experience was exclusive of other work for its duration.

As these types of multimedia have migrated to the Web, the experience becomes more complicated. Users are faced with an interface which requires exclusive attention but now embedded inside the browser which, in turn, is embedded in the Operating System UI. Within the browser alone, there maybe be multiple tabs, IM windows and work competing for attention.

Expecting a user to devote their full attention to this embedded interface and to modulate between active and passive viewing modes creates user experience dissonance. What they are being asked to do conflicts with the way they are already interacting with environment surrounding it and this creates a sense of discomfort and disappointment.

Massively Multiple Media (M3)

Some news organisations have already embraced this form of storytelling for a variety of reasons ranging from cultural to financial but, regardless of the reasons, there has been a shift away from attempts to live up to the ideal of multimedia as a new form of storytelling and an embrace of multiple media. Consider the publication of special reports – these might involve a series of text stories, photographs, audio, downloadable documents and video. Their presentation is such that they are grouped either by media types of by logical topical units but their navigation is done using conventions already familiar to someone using the web and there is no attempt at fusion between these forms.

In turn, this type of presentation allows users to interact with a story in the same way they do with other types of online content. They can access elements of the story asynchronously and in the order they prefer. It may not be convenient to watch a video at work but the text and photos are convenient. It may not make sense to watch the video embedded inside the page but it may be convenient to download it and watch it on an ipod later, when the time can be devoted to a passive mode of interaction.

Part of the consequence of the explosion of User Generate Content, particularly blogging, has been that audiences have gradually begun to accept the responsibility previously only in the hands of editors: that of ordering and making sense of large volumes of disparate content.

It would make sense then to allow users to do more of this kind of interaction with a story. Here’s an example: a news organisation is covering the war in Iraq and wants to do a special report. It doesn’t have reporters on the ground, at least not permanantly, so it buys text video and photos from news agencies who do have reporters on the scene. They compile this into a page that links to a series of photos, some stories and some video, and them write a synopsis of the collection, and they publish it.

While all of this seems perfectly normal, they are missing out on a major opportunity and that is to aggregate massive amounts of UGC. Youtube has many videos that explore almost all aspects of Iraqi life, often told by Iraqis themselves. Flickr has photos, there are Iraqi blogs and many more different types of content that can be linked to from this special report. Enough to make this special report a valuable resource to someone doing research or interested in the topic. That would be Massively Multiple Media – the news story as a social media aggregator.

There are two counter-arguments to this that I want to address briefly. The first would be reticence on the part of a news organisation to endorse content they don not necessarily trust. This is solved in the following way – make the best attempt to select content on the basis of your internal standards and if there is none that fit your criteria then don’t do it. Secondly, by linking to external resources you are merely brining this content to the attention of your audience, not endorsing it. Maybe include a note warning your readers that you’re sending them away from the site and that the organisation does necessarily endorse the views encountered at the destination.

The second counter-argument is copyright and ownership. In most cases this type of content is published in such a way that the mechanism exists for you to use it without claiming it is your own and, in fact, most creators will be more than happy to get links and recognition from a major news organisation. If you really want to be thorough, send an email saying you want to link to a photo and use a thumbnail – most of the time you will get a positive response and open up a new relationship with someone that might be useful down the line.

So to sum up: Massively Multiple Media is the aggregation of external sources of media into your own for the purpose of enhancing the user experience and being transparent about the existence of other available resources. It provides an experience cohesive with the Web user experience and will contribute significantly to a relationship of trust with your audience. It does feel like I am stating the obvious and I am very aware that many news organisations already do this, so I would really appreciate some feedback on this idea.

McBride secret tapes made for the web

The Mail & Guardian Online has just revealed a secret video that seems to show Saleem Ebrahim, the lawyer for Robert McBride’s three main detractors, saying they were involved in cash-in-transit heists and are going after McBride as a part of a deal to protect their own skins.

Click here to read the story and watch the video, or read more about it in the newspaper on stands today.

This is the second time we have used Zoopy to host video [the first was our Jimmy Wales interview], and we were incredibly happy with the professional service and dedication we get from Jason and his team. I would like to extend my personal thanks to them for going out of their way to assist us with the scheduling and publication of this video, I know getting up at 6AM in Cape Town is rough.

The Times launches its multimedia portal

You know you live in the age of YouTube when newspapers start launching portals dedicated to video, and video podcasts about books. Two days ago The Times opened the doors of its multimedia portal, which collects video reports that their multimedia journalists are producing.

Bottom line: the site is single best showcase of the Rhodes University School of Journalism & Media Studies. Ray Hartley, the editor, is a graduate. So is the strategist Colin Daniels, so are Carly Ritz and Gregor Rohrig and there are several more. Basically the Rat and Parrot needs to consider relocating or, at the very least, buying out The Jolly Rodger because Rosebank is teeming with rhodents.

Jokes aside, their work is going to set the standard for multimedia journalism in South Africa for the next five to ten years. I know Die Burger have been doing this for a while but they just seem to lack the style and panache of the team at The Times. The close incorporation of blogging into their newspaper and web site is also a good move, given that user-generated-content is the way of the future for most news sites looking to increase the volume of content (and ad inventory).

Watching all of this has also helped me understand where the battles are going to be fought in the future in terms of competition for audience and we have a few new ideas for the redevelopment of our own site.

MyVideo.co.za offers R1000 for the best vidizen journalism

MyVideo.co.za are putting up R1000 for the best piece of video citizen journalism, shot on a camcorder or cellphone. Their press page says, rather boldly:

The media has talked up the rise of the citizen journalist considerably over the last few months and social media is most certainly one of the favourite flavours of the month on communications and marketing sites and blogs.

But no one has put their money where their mouth is in terms of encouraging consumer journalism – until now.

Not to be critical but this isn’t really true – reporter.co.za has been paying citizen journalists for over a year now and, at R10 a story, I’m sure they have spent more than R1000 over that period.

The email press release, on the other hand, is titled “SA website first to pay public for news content“, which is also patently bullshit, but probably not to ordinary journalists who don’t follow the social media scene.

But that aside, I would like to encourage everyone not to panic about the odious-sounding legalese at the bottom of the press page:

2. The mere physical act or acts associated with sending by or on behalf of the assigner (including the author or agent) of a cinematograph film to MyVideo shall be deemed to represent an offer of assignment of copyright for a price of R1000 (one thousand rand), and a non-exclusive license to publish and use the cinematograph film in its discretion subject to the right of revocation on one calendar month’s written notice.

What this means, in plain English, is that by submitting your video you’re offering to sell it to them. If they choose to buy it for R1000 you win.

Think about it – R1000 for a cell-phone video that you would ordinarily have deleted is a good deal, let them have the copyright dammit.

A few things are unlear from both the site and the press release:

1. When does the competion close?
2. What happens to the submitted videos that aren’t chosen?

I’m sure these will all be answered in due course and I think its a great way to incentivise people to do journalism for money, even though that sort of takes away the citizen element.

David Bullard shot, New Media Lab graduates show the way to multimedia storytelling

David Bullard was shot during a robbery at his house last night but luckily he is in a stable condition. Have a look at the excellent Sunday Times Online story as an example of excellent multimedia reporting. They have a video interview with Bullard in hospital, photos of his X-Rays and a great story to go with it. Well done to everyone involved! This is one of the first outputs by the new convergence team at the Sunday Times Online, comprising Carly Ritz, Colin Daniels and Gregor Rohrig

The Invisible Men: The best student work produced by the NML this year

My students have just published a multimedia story about two men in Grahamstown who support themselves and others by going through the rubbish on collection day, called The Invisible Men. The story has an introduction, a profile on each of the men individually and a commentary by Gregor Rohrig, the talented photographer who provided the visuals.

The story was produced over a two week period and presented some serious dilemmas both ethically and practically. To begin with, I wanted to give the men something for their time. After some debate we decided not to tell each of the men during the production and surprise them at the end. This, we figured, would sort out the ethical problems and make sure the men didn;t do anything different while we were there in expectation of a reward. The fact is, both men needed anything we could give them and they were overwhelmed when we finally produced grocery vouchers for them from Pick ‘N Pay.

Rhodes journ students often takes flack for using the community for projects and not helping their subjects at all, something I wanted to avoid this time around.

Then there was the problem of translation. Our first translator freaked out, telling us that we were using the men to evoke emotion in a shameless manner. We spent a lot of time debating this afterwards and almost stopped the story. The resolution was to go forward but to seek empathy not sympathy from the audience and this stayed with us as a guiding principle throughout.

Then the students, not used to working with translators, got mixed up a few times and we ended up unable to understand where each bit of translation starts and stops in the audio files so we had to get the translators back in again to do that for us.

The voice-overs were also quite difficult and we produced each story with three voices to make a selection. Eventually we got the voice we have now, Prof Faxon Banda, who was a) kind enough to help us and b) able to convey the tone in the way we wanted it to come across.

All-in-all I think the story is the best work my students have done, the culmination of a year’s worth of toil and training and I am proud to send them into the job market with this under their belts. Well done!

My new students launch their first multimedia story

Visit the Grocott’s Mail web site, click on the banner titled “The road through Grahamstown”, get yourself a cup of coffee while it loads and watch the first output from my multimedi intensive students. I think it’s great.

New class, new multimedia

On Monday I started teaching a new class of 9 students who are passionate about multimedia journalism. We’re already in the midle of the first production cycle and hope to publish the first installment on friday morning on the Grocott’s Mail web site.

The first story is about the people and businesses along Beufort and raglan road in Grahamstown. The road runs across the entire town and provides an interesting cross-section of the socio-cutural and economic mix of people and conditions in the town, from the ivory towers of the university to the shanties in Fingo Village.

A double duh to ETV, or: Violence declared a “brand new thing”, no history of it revealed in society until kids got cellphones.

This has been building for a while so it might sound like another rant.

I have been following the build-up on ETV of this kids + cellphones = newfound mayhem story. First there were the kids who burned the mouse in the cardboard box (okay that was not nice). Then there was the kids brawling in the toilet. Now there is the playground fight.

Violence shot by kids on cellphone cameras is spiralling out of control, the experts say.

Here is my take on this:

1. If well-trained Reuters journalists can’t resist staging photographs in Lebanon, how on earth do you expect kids to know any better? They haven’t spent fours years studying journalism ethics, they also don’t have editors who might smack them on the wrist for telling one girl another girl stole her boyfriend and then shooting the ensuing carnage.
2. When I was at school we didn’t have cameras on our phones but we still beat the crap out of each other for various reasons. There is nothing new here.
3. What has changed is that a lot of young people now have the capability to produce media anywhere and everywhere, and have the social networking tools to creat a large audience.
4. Privacy is something of the past, there can be no more presidential candidates with clean records
5. The media who are whipping up a frenzy are getting it all wrong, because they don’t understand the fundamental shift in culture that comes with micro-media and social networking. And neither do parents: this is not a dramatic new trend. Kids need to be taught about ethics, privacy and issues around media production.

I can imagine that when the every-day person got their hands on pen and paper and started documenting their lives the authorities thought there was a sudden moral downturn in the quality of society too. The truth is that a new medium like this simply exposes the hypocisy of society and reveals how inadequately it understands itself.

Proudly announcing: NML RAW Joburg SmackDown

The New Media Lab students will be operating out of the Sunday Times Online newsroom next week as part of a multimedia journalism field trip. We expect extensive damage to the greater Johannesburg area and you can follow it on the NML RAW blog.