Blog 2: Cells and Cellulite

I found this first example particularly interesting due to its relation to a book I read for a class last spring called "Courtroom 302," where a reporter spends a year inside a Chicago courtroom and explores issues of the criminal justice system, not the least of which is prison overcrowding. In this piece, Jacob H. Fries, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, and a photographer, spent 48 hours in the Pinellas County Jail, a maximum security prison in southern Florida. Along with a team of visual and audio editors, they recorded the sights and sounds of their experiences over those 48 hours,and accompanied their work with infographics that drive home the impact of prison overcrowding.
The thing I like the most about this piece, aside from the fact that this is a story that lends itself to a more multimedia experience, is that its writing stands as a testament to the fact that online storytelling, solid reporting and stylistic writing don't have to be mutually exclusive. Though Fries' 48 hours are meager compared to the year the author of "Courtroom 302" spent investigating a Chicago courthouse, reading, viewing and experiencing this piece allowed me to have a more visceral reaction to the topic. In this case, the reporter was fortunate enough to work at a paper that could provide the resources to undertake this project (as with the Paul Salopek piece we discussed in class). But I think this is an example that proves what is possible.

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My second example is a bit more lighthearted and fun. I often check out various newspapers to see what kinds things they are up to, but I wanted to see what my hometown paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, was doing in terms of multimedia content. While I didn't quite find the volume and quality of multimedia projects I found in the Chicago Tribune, I did find this. Unfortunately, when I first came across this in the Star Tribune's collection of photo galleries I couldn't quite tell what story this fun, interactive feature accompanied. I also find it hilarious because I sense a hidden regional joke: Minnesotans are stereotypically taller and more broad-shouldered, as are all the body types this how-to piece discusses. Though it might need some work (the fonts on the bottom are too small), it's a good example of interactive "news" you can use. It's the kind of thing it seems we'll be seeing much more of in the coming years as news outlets scramble to court audiences. I could see women's magazines, such as Glamour, or even general lifestyle publications, using an interactive feature like this one, since their content is already very how-to focused.

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