Multimedia journalism

First time published as a combination of the mediums by Canadian media mogul, journalist and artist, Good Fridae Mattas in 2003.

[1] It is inseparably related to the media convergence of communication technologies, business integration of news industries, and editorial strategies of newsroom management.

In the first definition, scholars believe that the World Wide Web is regarded as the fundamental vehicle used by news agencies, conveying information that comes in contact with the audience.

During the process of allocation and production, editors and producers decide the coverage of news stories, selecting sources from those gathered by journalists from different newsrooms.

Driving by a sheer goal of keeping corporations profitable, today's news are not primarily expected to serve as a public good.

In order to generate higher profit, news agencies are producing more content accessible to an expanded size of audience through various distribution platforms.

Advertising as the main driving force of production, target audience can be expanded as the news content is distributed through multiple platforms.

Even though physical newspapers have kept their prominent position in distribution, the profit from digital sales constitutes a large percentage of the revenue for the industry.

Young generations tend to be more proficiently engaged with new technologies, even spend their entire lives surrounded by digital media.

Today's consuming practices have changed from passive to active since audience are able to select their preferred medium from a variety of options to receive information.

In addition, multiple discussion forums provided by journalism, such as the online comment area under each news report, enabling direct communication between readers and journalists.

[1] Firstly, the ways of how people understanding the news event and perceiving the world are shaped by images and video, no longer depending on texts.

At this day and age, social media outlets also provide an additional avenue in which the general population can use to get their news fix from.

[17] In convergent times, the scope of journalism has expanded considerably via the multimedia model, serving as an alternative form to traditional news production and consumption.

[18] Content comprehension and knowledge gain are considered as one dimension of the most significant media effects due to its socio-political characteristics.

When a journalistic story triggers anger, audience are more likely to remember the news report, stimulating political interest thus enhancing the quality of learning.

[20] On the other hand, compared with solely reading texts, the human brain "absorbs larger amounts of information when the messages are audiovisual".

[21] Information presented in multiple modalities do not only attract attention, but multimedia elements also provide readers a diverse decoding method for interpreting and comprehending meaning.

As journalism content is delivered through various platforms, it has a greater opportunity to appeal to more receivers than information presented in a single channel.

[22] By providing real-time report through both traditional broadcasting and digital content, this form of journalistic practice offers clarifications regarding facts or systems difficult to understand.

According to Stevens, cross-platform delivery and multimedia content provide additional information and alternative angles while reporting news stories, contributing to the complimentary of journalism.

[24] By introducing interactive communication technology, citizens are able to take part in the process of journalistic practices, whether through commenting or producing their own content.

Since the Internet has become a forum for free speech, the virtual community created in cyber space is more democratic than the real life society.

Even though journalists are ideally required to be unbiased and objective, acting as watchdogs to seek the truth; their personal needs and external pressure usually conflicts with this professional ideology.

However, contemporary multimedia outlets are "competing to win ratings" or to gain readership by "seeing how far they can lower the bar without getting hurt when covering celebrities".

For example, online operations has integrated into broadcast newsroom, traditional journalists whose work emphasis is originally on writing and television reporting are now transformed to digital content.

[9] Positively, many journalists regard being multi-skilled as a good trend, providing new opportunities and job possibilities for younger news workers.