I’ve found that the websites I spend more than a few moments on are ones that enable me to interact in some way. As interested as I may be in reading news content, when I’m on the Internet I tend to click links and change screens rather than sit still. Unless something especially intrigues me, I generally skim online articles or at most do a close reading of only the first few paragraphs. These urges to interact with the screen in front of me are the reason the New York Times website is my homepage. I found that I returned to this website again and again, because it provided outlets for me to interact with the news I was reading.
Timescast is one of the New York Times’ primary audio and visual features. Timescast is a daily fixture that focuses on one story each day. Topics range from parliamentary candidates in Afghanistan last Friday to a New York fashion show on September 16th. Each Timescast video offers onsite coverage to make viewers feel as though they are in the newsroom. This element of the New York Times’ website allows the news organization to go a step further in the type of coverage it offers. It also gives readers a chance to see and hear NY Times reporters rather than only reading their findings in print. Video news coverage that used to only be available on TV stations has become a part of print media as well.
Another New York Times audio/visual feature that is more akin to dateline than to a live newsroom experience are video feature stories. Rather than from an onsite reporter, these stories usually come straight from the mouths of the individuals whom they affect. The most recent of these videos is a feature on a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony. The video includes a slideshow of the couple’s dating pictures as well as photos and video from the actual ceremony. Both women provide voiceovers explaining why they decided to accept a domestic partnership rather than a marriage. This video allows subjects to tell their story in their own words rather than through brief quotes in an article. It also provides interested viewers with more photos than a print newspaper can offer.
I definitely agree that Timecast is a cornerstone of the New York Times website. There's an added spark of hearing reporters talk about their findings verse simply reading it on a page.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it sort of freaks me out, since I have no motivation to go on video for the stories I write.
I also liked your link for the video feature stories (I used the same one!)
They videos definitely touch on to topics in a way that they are not always presented by a onsite reporter.
This is a pretty interesting way of making a video.
ReplyDeleteWhile it isn't a straight forward "news video," It still brings to light a lot of the issues that gay couples face do to the inability for them to get married or at least obtain the same benefits as straight couples.
This is a pretty neat feature I never knew about. The ad at the beginning also provides a way for the New York Times to not lose money on their website
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