Post 7: Recognizing multimedia potential

Vidisha Priyanka, an online production team leader for Tampa Bay Online (http://www.tbo.com), is incredibly animated and dynamic when discussing the multimedia potential in communications storytelling. I wish I had captured some video of her talk; I’m learning the hard way about keeping batteries charged and taking extras along.

She reiterated the fact that the tools of communication are changing so quickly that communicators need to carry on constant conversations about the best approach to getting messages out effectively, then she backed that up with suggestions.

Just to get things rolling, she showed an example of a Flash project produced by MSNBC that incorporated a variety of new-media elements, including a survey, a game and more.

“Battle of the Bags” can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23358591/

“The biggest thing in online journalism is that you give the audience choices,” she said, as she showed how the MSNBC package also includes an audio/video essay, audio slide show and other elements. “They can interact and play with the project.”

She said that revenue online is not just based on page views; the data assessed include the amount of time consumers spend on a site and how often they return to the site. “Those numbers draw advertisers,” she explained.

She divided the types of multimedia support into two categories: continuous news and special projects. “Continuous news coverage (providing extra elements to supplement spot-news stories and events) can be handled by one person, but special projects require teamwork and generally take more time,” she said. 

Tampa Bay Online has about 11 online production people, divided into two teams. Priyanka leads one of them. The salary range runs from about $35,000 a year for a Level One producer to $70,000 for a Level Three producer – a person who has extra abilities with animation and specialized graphic design.

While she’s an advocate for giving the audience the information it needs, she said extra, added elements shouldn’t be forced. “There is pressure to bring multimedia to the table whether or not the story demands it,” she said. “If your story will suffer, if you’re being asked to do things that will not contribute to it, put your foot down.”

More key points:

- Handheld computers are the new competition for traditional online news.

- People use the Web for information and for something to do. Keep it fresh and keep it interactive.

- Keep feeding people fresh information as soon as you get it, bumping the old version with updates as you gather more details or adding to the version with fresh leads. “People want to know, ‘Why is that helicopter hovering over my local grocery store,’” she said. They want to feel a sense of control over their lives.

- Online producers have to keep asking themselves, “What do you know now, and what will you find out next?”

- You need to recognize the needs and news patterns of the local audience, including the “Bored at Work Network.”

- Today’s audiences for television, online and print news do not overlap a lot. “If you put the three in a Venn diagram there is some overlap, but not with all three.”

- Think simple concepts, easy to approach and use; sometimes just adding a link with related coverage or extra information is enough.

- Learn to listen and understand your audience.

- Giving people added information adds value and keeps the audience coming back for more. Establish your site as the one people go to get local information and layer on national and international links so they know they can come to you for comprehensive details. TBO has 10 zoned community websites, catering to local schools, governments and events.

At Poynter sessions, other faculty sit in on sessions, to learn from Poynter seminar participants and from the faculty leading the sessions. Al Tompkins piped up at this point about the concept of “aggregation versus generation.” He said 20 years ago communicators went out and got information – they generated the news – and then presented what they found. “Those days are over,” he said. “We should aggregate and generate. The successful sites do both. Most success comes out of being an aggregator AND a generator.”

Priyanka said communicators need to work to “own” their local turf, the local market. They have to provide neighborhood news, and they have to make it hyperlocal. “Own your local market,” she said. “That is where your strength lies.”

She showed a slide titled “The Dilemma of the Medium.” It included a list of pressure points. Among them were:

1) The legacy medium’s loss of audience (television and print newspapers)

2) The need for speed in doing constant online updates

3) Competition

4) Extra work involved in listening to your audience – more feedback

5) The problems associated with using user-created content

6) Photos, photos, photos

7) Video – challenges of time and lack of training

Just keeping pace with the new technology tools

9) Text – making it readable; how to present it

She said the way to generate traffic is to give people what they want. “Put stuff up as it happens,” she urged. “Put up things from everywhere in the newsroom.” She explained the headline doesn’t have to be a crime or big weather story. People flock to other news. When Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert, TBO responded with stories on disappointed fans, a check on how many times he’d canceled concerts in his career, the effects on traffic, where he would be performing next and other angles.

Priyanka said everyone in a communications organization should be expected to contribute to multimedia production and 24/7 news thinking. This is the reason behind the creation of Continuous News departments in newsrooms. The audience wants fresh content all the time, and the more you give it the more traffic you attract. She said one way to perpetuate this is to run overlapping shifts that cover more of the day and night. TBO goes from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

It’s also important for everyone in an organization to share skills and help each other continually learn to use new tools and take on improved approaches.

She had a list of suggestions for tackling a planned project, saying you should ask yourself:

- Is the story complex?

- Can it benefit from a fresh approach?

- Why would the audience have an interest? (Does it affect safety, health, family, community – why?)

- Does it have a shelf life?

- Does it allow you to entertain as well as inform?

- Can each component of the story be a story itself?

- Is retention of information by the audience important?

Priyanka said making a photo gallery of stills takes less time than compiling a slideshow. A mash-up takes less time than a Flash piece. Audio is easier than video – much easier. It takes one hour to produce each minute of finished video (not including capture and convert). Databases can enhance interactivity. She mentioned Caspio.com (http://www.caspio.com/) as a useful database solutions provider.

She said when you want to add extra interactive elements or multimedia you have to “think simple, think resources” and ask yourself some questions:

Who will report and write? Who has the equipment to do this? Who will edit it? Who will publish it online? Who will provide tech support?

Seminar participant Dave Davies, news director for Texas Public Radio, responded to that, “What if the answer to all of the questions is ME?”

Priyanka answered that you just do what you can to handle it as well as possible.

“A simple map, a graphic, bullet points,” she said. “You don’t have to do everything. Think simple. Don’t think you have to do it all.”

Explore posts in the same categories: Multiplatform Journalism, Poynter Workshop, Uncategorized