An advantage of my experience with multimedia journalism was my ability to make my content more effective. My recent digital story on online right wing extremism was facilitated by data visualisations. My graphs provided insight into the membership of far right groups on social media, the ways in which far right online spaces have promoted their beliefs through mainstream media sources, and the responses to far right content from social media companies such as Facebook. The use of these graphs allowed the reader to quickly grasp the information which I provided. In addition to graphs, the use of photographs enhanced my digital storytelling skills. I conveyed the themes of online right wing extremism by taking photos of a computer and social media apps. The incorporation of these photos was a useful way to provide further context to my story.
Another benefit of my involvement in multimedia journalism was the expansion of my research skills. Many different sources were used in my right wing extremism story. The data which I displayed originated from sources such as First Monday and Victoria University. The written component contained links to websites such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Brennan Law Partners. By using a wide variety of sources, I learnt how to be more selective about the information which I included. Hence, I realized that research is a fundamental part of the digital storytelling process.
Despite its benefits, I found that multimedia journalism involves challenges. A key example is time constraints. I felt that the tight deadline affected the quality of my far right story. Because right wing extremism is a broad topic, I decided to invest a large amount of time on the story’s written component. As a result, the other multimedia elements did not necessarily meet my expectations in terms of creativity. Although the photos were relevant to the topic, they looked slightly generic. Additionally, my selection of data felt somewhat rushed and there were potentially other useful sets of data which I could have used. Thus, my recommendation for other student journalists who attempt multimedia stories is to put a significant amount of effort into the visual aspects.
In addition to time constraints, I was faced with the dilemma of source protection. One source for my far right story was concerned that they would be abused or harmed if I mentioned their name online. Although I was able to anonymise this source, I would advise other student journalists who write stories about sensitive topics to be careful with confidentiality. I learnt from my own experience that the anonymisation of sources can be challenging given that it normally requires consent. Moreover, there are some media organisations which enforce policies that require journalists to share a source’s identity with their editors.
URL for Adam Miller’s Blog Post: http://thecityjournal.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=78808&action=edit
