When is it worth it?

Posted on February 13, 2007 by Melissa Worden

Laura Ruel and Nora Paul report on the “beginning efforts to research and evaluate story design effects on news audiences” in “Multimedia storytelling: when is it worth it?” (Link found via Angela Grant)

Hmmm … just the question I’ve been asking myself as I try to tread water amid ever-growing requests from my newsroom for some sort of multimedia component to go with print stories.

This is just the beginning of the reports, so I’m looking forward to learning more. Here’s the nutgraph of what they’ve found so far with the Digital Story Effects Lab (DiSEL) study:

“What the research does seem to reveal is that the highly interactive content results in more time spent online with the material and a greater level of reported “enjoyment.” In addition (and counter to some other studies which show a negative impact) the Flash version seemed to help people recall the information being presented. So, if your goal in presenting a story – particularly one that has potential for a long “shelf-life” – is to entertain, inform, and keep people online longer, then investing in a creative, interactive presentation could be well worth the effort.”

Excellent. This all helps confirm what I learned when I started working with online news and multimedia elements back in 1999. In their present form, they’re sticky, fun, and educational.

Wait, though. The supporting research (Eyetrack III findings) does contradict DiSel (as noted above):

It was found that with both stories, individuals had better recall of the names of people involved and the locations of specific story events if they read the text version.

Aha! I’ve got an idea … why not bring the static and interactive together?

I’ve blogged about this before, but I still think the best solution is one where the user choices are integrated.

For instance, in the NYTimes example they used of Al Hirschfeld’s obit, take these multimedia elements and add them to the static page. Let the user get the easy-to-recall facts and still explore the video and audio slideshow segments without having to make a choice in what they’re going to view.

It shouldn’t be an either or. It should be a whole package. Wouldn’t you then accomplish ALL your goals?

I have to agree with Mindy McAdams’ post Missed the vision, ignored the visionaries. Journalism has been spinning its wheels.

This OJR study is useful, definitely. But I hate to say that it would have been equally useful back in 1999.

Comments

2 Responses to “When is it worth it?”

angela on February 14th, 2007 12:26 pm

I think the report proposes a pretty good “test” to take before beginning a multimedia project. I may propose that we use it here in our newsroom.
Melissa Worden on February 14th, 2007 2:23 pm

I agree. I was thinking about using it too. I didn’t mean to knock the study; I do think it’s helpful.

It just got me thinking about what we’re doing now compared to what I’ve already learned about multimedia, which resulted in this rambling. :)

I’m looking forward to seeing what more they publish about it.

Leave a Reply