3 great multimedia packages

It's week 5...the final week...of my online journalism course.





I had to choose 3 great multimedia packages and say why they stand out.

#1) Forty Years of Respect. An audio and video presentation on the history of that famous song "Respect."
http://media.freep.com/respect/index.html

I learned a few things about the song "Respect" and the people who sang versions of it.

The staff writer at Freep.com, the website for the Detroit Free Press, Kelly L. Carter, introduces and concludes part 1 of the 14 part video journey herself...allowing the viewer to see and hear the person who most likely spearheaded the project.

It's easy to navigate the site...which is video based with narration and lots of well-edited audio, especially of the star...the song "Respect."

You could even take the pop quiz on Aretha Franklin and "Respect."


As Mindy McAdams pointed out in her blog... (http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2007/multimedia-packages-music-journalism/)

Forty Years was among the finalists for the 2007 Online Journalism Awards category “Outstanding Use of Digital Media.”



2) Reporting for Duty. The St Louis Post Dispatch takes a video diary look at the recruitment, training and graduation process at Fort Leonard Wood.
http://www.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/471

The only concern I have is the army song that plays continuously on the homepage...unless you choose to turn it off.

What brings the multimedia package alive are the basic training videos. Inspection was cool...just when a recruit thinks everything is perfect...the inspector finds something wrong...from a smudge on a lapel, to a flashlight standing upright in a cupboard.




3) "Black Market" by Patrick Brown.
http://mediastorm.org/0015.htm

This independent presentation got an honourable mention in the 2008 NPPA Best of Photojournalism Awards.

Unlike the other two sites...this one uses black and white photos, in a slide show presentation of sorts, and some colour video diaries...featuring the moderately paced, quiet, and at times haunting voice of Patrick Brown himself...to tell the story of the black market trade in animal parts and the way 'exotic' animals are treated in certain parts of the world.

Brown tells an amazing and even funny story in Monks and Tigers.