The Philadelphia Inquirer published the Blackhawk Down series in 1997 on the ill-fated U.S. Thus multimedia is placed a secondary role as a decoration for the main text story. So the multimedia is usually viewed after reading the main text story. The Christmas Tree refers to a form of multimedia storytelling in which the main story is text presented as a linear narrative, while links to multimedia elements like videos, photo slideshows, maps and graphics are just add-ons, placed to the side of the main text story like ornaments hung on a tree (credit to Regina McCombs, formerly a multimedia producer with the Minneapolis Star Tribune and now with the Poynter Institute, who first used the term “Christmas Tree” in describing this kind of story).īecause the multimedia is stacked on the side, it isn’t designed to be read in an integrated way with the text narrative (unless links to the multimedia are also embedded in the text story). Uprooted is a six-part story done by the San Jose Mercury News in December 2007 on mobile home dwellers who were forced to relocate after a developer purchased their mobile home park. These packages use a traditional narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end to the story, although they are often divided into chronological “chapters” or “parts.” Stories that re-create events are most often told in this format. This first section explores different approaches to organizing a package of stories, such as linear or non-linear, embedded or ancillary multimedia, comprehensive or immersive, and the different ways multimedia is integrated into each package. Here are examples of different approaches to online story packages, grouped into general categories that define how they’re presented or organized, or by the type of media that is dominant in the narrative (and many of the story packages combine elements from several different categories). Other story packages draw on many different media forms equally, with different parts of the story told in the type of media most appropriate to that kind of content.
In other cases multimedia is embedded inside a text story (or even embedded in a video story as interactive elements in the video) or are part of an immersive experience. Sometimes text drives the story and multimedia components like video, graphics or photo slideshows are placed put off to the side.
Alternatively, non-linear stories are sliced into topical segments and it’s up to the user to decide how to navigate the package. They may be divided into segments or chapters like a multi-part newspaper story, but the user is expected to go through the segments in a predetermined sequence.