Flash Journalism

Suekyoung Kim

Flash’s popularity comes from the fact that it provides an easy way to control the final look of the documents published on the Web. Its aspect as an interactive multimedia also contributes to its promising future. Interactivity is important because the ability to provide a real user-controlled experience is what it distinguishes online media from other news media. Ch 2 states that while television journalists use the word “package” to mean one finished story that airs during a newscast, online journalists use “package” (or sometimes “shell”) to mean a compilation or set of elements that are all related to one story. The definition of online package implies that journalism can be more flexible, modifiable, selective, and creative in the virtual spaces than in living rooms. This characteristic of online package allows news consumers to engage more deeply with the story and Flash plays a main role in creating online package with its many strengths. Flash has varied advantages for delivering graphical and interactive content online with the help of its large installed base for the Flash player among internet users and its small SWF file size. Flash’s ability to deliver high quality text, audio, video, and photographic images helps secure its status on the Web. Flash also allows its audience to see the content even before its SWF file gets downloaded completely and this means a lot to some impatient internet users as well as its compatibility with other softwares and operating systems.