Interactive Flash Content

I found many of the observations in "A New Form of Storytelling" on how online content differs from both print and broadcast media due the interactivity and control it provides insightful and helpful in judging my effective use of the medium. Still, I found some of the suggestions in the chapter relatively absurd, even for a theoretic look at what online journalism could in some unrealistic future be. My most salient example is the chapter's suggestion that video games could be incorporated into a journalistic product as a means for the visitor to explore the information in an interactive, fun way. First of all, it is called a game for a reason. Journalism, while entering into a new age where innovation is encouraged, is not a game. Actually following through with some of these more, shall I say, "avant garde" ideas that they throw around in the article could deal a fatal blow to a news organization's credibility. That is, if someone was stupid enough to follow through on making a video game part of their package.

The second chapter, "What Flash Brings to Online Media," read more like a technical manual to me, but its insight into how certain aspects of flash were interesting to me because, although I took a course in high school on web design that included some lessons on basic flash animation and rollover graphics, I never have read about the relationship between journalism and Flash. Reading about applications of a key piece of software to journalism certainly seems worthwhile to me as a student.