You have the main – headline – story going on down the center of the of the page but on side panel of the text, at the bottom of the text, and THROUGHOUT the text there are either pictures that you can scroll through emphasizing what’s happening, or pictures with links that scroll up over the photo when you move your mouse across them, or other similar/related headlines. But what REALLY does it for me is that the home page of the Wonderwall is just a literal wall of pictures with the scrolling links when you hover over the photographs, but whenever you click a photo for that corresponding story, the other photos don’t disappear! They graphically slide to the outside of that story so you have everything I described above with a clickable backdrop of all the other main – headline – stories of the day conveniently available to scroll through all around the outside of whatever you’re reading.

I like the way it’s done because not only is it convenient and visually appealing, but they pull it off in a way that’s not confusing to look at or extremely busy either. Moreover, it keeps the other headlines of the day fresh in the reader’s mind so you don’t have the issue of them wanting to come back to it and forgetting it ever existed by the time they finish scrolling through the story of their choice. Practically ingenious right? Well it would be if it weren’t for a very few, but still very critical critiques. Number two….there should be videos (and maybe even some audio). Anything to break up the monotony of photos and story links. I think there should ALWAYS be variety in online/digital news stories. It’s so important to get out that story in various ways so that the reader doesn’t get bored and also has multiple platforms on which to understand and RELATE to what’s going on.

Because like I’ve said before, it’s all about the story and getting the reader to connect to it in as many ways and as deeply as possible. But critique number ONE is that there is NOWHERE…at least that I saw where readers can respond, tweet, post to Facebook, leave comment, or in other words IMPACT the story. If there is then I missed it and a bunch of other readers like me missed it too. There should be a CLEAR, RECOGNIZABLE way for your consumers to interact with the media in this new age of journalism otherwise you’ve missed a major selling point. Interaction is something many tests and surveys have proven as being important to the new relationship being built between journalists and the public.

I want to comment, I want to share on social media, and I want to feel APART of the story that is happening, not like the story is happening to me or without me. And it’s our job as journalists to deliver that ability. So other than those two REALLY important points, I still give this site a good grade for effort and visual appeal.

There was of course a calvacade of news stories and briefs and articles posted immediately, and thus there were (both unfortunately and fortunately) many examples of converged journalism to pull from about this subject. My two favorites both came from different outlets of USA Today and my third was done by another great Youtube and Vevo conjunction.

The Youtube offered a playlist of some of Whitney’s Greatest Hits (which equaled all of them.) The other two were more traditional journalism. One accompanied an article entitled Whitney Houston, musical superstar, dies but the converged part is the timeline at the top entitled “The rise and fall of Whitney Houston” which is good and allows for cool visuals and videos, but my preference is their much more digital version called Whitney Houston: 1963-2012. It was just better looking, more dynamic, and had so much more information.

Plus it gave me the same interactive option of posting or commenting or sharing on Twitter or Facebook but in a way that made me feel more involved. And I think I got more of a feel for Whitney and more of a FOCUS on her versus on the news vehicle of USA Today. Which is what it was supposed to look like right? A tribute, not a selling tool despite if it was supposed to be both.

Either way both were good examples, but the most important thing is that a great woman was greatly recognized. <3

R.I.P. Whitney Houston…you will ALWAYS be one of my Greatest Loves of All….

Whitney Houston – Greatest Love of All

According to an article published by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) called “Converging Curriculum: Finding the Niche”  Brill is quoted as saying, “It’s about the purpose, message and audience.” She goes on to say, “Why are we telling the story? What is the message? Who are we telling the story?” All of which are valid questions. I believe this article does a good job of relating the primary purpose of journalists back to the reader so that it becomes clear that the issue of convergence in media does not reside solely or even most importantly within rendering stories to consumers in new and fancy and flashy ways. The most important concern is whether or not all of these methods is using new and fancy and flashy ways to get across good, solid, epic, timeless STORIES!

Yet, I still will not say that without also dealing with the reality that new forms of media are taking over the markets and radically changing how interested parties consume news. It’s not just about television and newspapers anymore. There are now E-book readers, iPads, Androids, iPhones, notebooks, laptops, and various other methods to consume news, knowledge, and etc. So we as an industry have to keep up with what is going on and what consumers want otherwise everyone would be out of a job. So I can respect when individuals, like a professor at Marquette University who was quoted as saying, “[N]othing stays the same except change”, feel that it is always necessary to be open to a transition of priorities. So while storytelling should always be the number one aim and goal…the method by which you tell it can alter and change and do what it will, and I feel the readers could care less.