Interactive multimedia

I've now had the chance to view some of the online multimedia packages Mike suggested we look at. What's remarkable to me how simple and clean they look. Both the NY Times piece and the map on the Arizona Star Web site appear to be these simple little graphics, but they're not.

I thought the NY Times story was cool because it basically told itself. It almost seems like someone just left a tape recorder on the bench in the gym. But the snippets of interviews, along with shouts of encouragement and grunts of struggle, really told the story as the images flashed by.

The Arizona Star map of the golf course was cool, too. A great idea would be to copy what the Arizona Star did, and do it at other golf courses. You could put the map on an interactive screen in the golf cart, so you can get tips for each hole from the course's pro while you're playing. I'm not a golfer, but I know my brother and my Dad would love this, especially on the expensive courses that they only play once on vacation.

The most interesting thing to me is that these multimedia pieces don't even seem like journalism at first glance, especially the golf course map. But there had to be, as Mike said, some really good reporting done. I think it would be cool to work on a project like the interactive map. I can honestly say after viewing these, I've been brainstorming to try to come up with ways to make my project more interactive, or at least Web-friendly.