Multimedia vs. Multiple Media stories

There are plenty of sites that claim they host multimedia stories, where as in fact they are nothing but multiple media stories.In my opinion there is huge difference when creating a multiple media story or a multimedia story.

Multiple media stories are definitive of their separate media elements. Record video and audio, take images, write text, add all visual and audio elements to view next to the text story, and voilà, a multiple media story. The problem then is, that there is no convergence, that the viewer is expected to read, hear, and see all these separate media separately and make sense of it in the end. There is often no link between the one medium and the other and most of all, text is still dominating the page.

I’m not saying that text should be ignored completely, but rather used effectively within a multimedia story. Text, such as captions, shorts intros, or chapter headlines are an effective means of presenting and guiding a story. Multimedia stories are a convergence of all the above mentioned media joined into one template. It is the collaboration of audio, video, still images, and text. One story is told by using all these media.

Personally, I prefer still images, sometimes animated, with background sounds and either a solid narration or interviewees narrating the story. Video works when the visual is very strong and should only be used for audio purposes if visually weak - rather compensate with some strong still images.

Here is another good definition.

Labels: Multimedia, Multiple Media