Item 4-b

6. Discussion concepts: multimedia news & multimodality; business of the media & depth, interactivity, immediacy; produsage; screen/ web genres & audiences' preferences/ expectations

85% Of Media Websites Now Use Online Video To Cover News

This article written by O'Neill (2011) discusses the current trend on media websites to cover news. Below shows a video blog done by Douglas Simon on the results of an online survey delivered to over a huge number of media influencers, roughly around 1,000 of them on the field of TV, radio, newspaper, and web media properties. Watch the video below to see the results on this survey. 

As you can see, there is a 33% increase on media outlets that are using online video to cover news as compared to last year's survey. The growth of this trend seems to show to sign on stopping anytime soon. 

This is an example of video news featured on the Voice of America taken from my desktop. Did you know that video news is a form of multimodality? According Walsh (2006, p. 24), video is a form of multimodal text in non-print form. So what is multimodality? Walsh described it as a multimodal text that consist of more than one 'mode', so that meaning is being conveyed through a synchronization of modes. Therefore they may incorporate written or spoken language, still or moving pictures, produced on paper or electronic screen that may include music and sound. In this case, news is combined with online video, which makes it a multimodal text in non-print form. 


This form of news is also known as multimedia journalism, Dueze (2004, p.140) states that there are two of defining multimedia in  news: 

1. As presentation of news story package on a website using two or more media formats that includes interactive and hypertextual elements. 
2. Presentation of news story through various types of media such as website, email, newspaper, magazine and many more. 

The idea of both multimodal text and multimedia news is so huge that even Times is using it as tool to keep readers tuned in to their latest news. According to Zhang (2011) in an interview with Amy Harmon, the Pulitzer Prize winning National correspondent for the New York Times, Harmon states that the use of multimedia journalism is to keep readers listening, watching and looking for news.

This is an example of the use of multimedia news on The New York Times taken directly from my desktop. Because of how user-friendly and interactive multimodals are, I understand why it is becoming such a fast, strong growing trend among generations these days.

References: 

1. Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp 24-37.
2. Dueze, M 2004, 'What is multimedia journalism?', Journalism Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, viewed 9 November 2011, <http://indiana.academia.edu/MarkDeuze/Papers/725187/What_is_Multimedia_Journalism>.
3. Zhang, M 2011, 'Multimedia in journalism: An interview with the Times' Amy Harmon', Mediabistro, 3 November, viewed 9 November 2011, <http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/multimedia-journalism-interview-amy-harmon-quick-link_b8143>.
4. O'Neill, M 2011, '85% of media websites now use online video to cover news', Social Times, 3 May, viewed 9 November 2011, <http://socialtimes.com/85-of-media-websites-now-use-online-video-to-cover-news_b60505>.