Multimedia I'd use

One of the greatest pieces of multimedia that I’d like to see used is the podcasts I found on ljworld.com. I think that through the use of this newer technology, anyone can reach the younger generations. The majority of them have iPods, use them regularly, and understand the technology, so if a site is smart enough, they will try to tap into this technological trend and, by doing so, be able to change the way the younger people see news, or anything else that isn’t commonly popular with that generation.

I think that layering is an essential piece of an adequate news service, so I really like to see sites using as many pieces of multimedia as they can to give their users as much information in one place as they can in order to give their users the best ability to use that information effectively in their lives. In order to layer effectively, I would use videos, photo galleries, and interactive features.
One idea that I came up with is the idea of offering a free archive of the videos, photo galleries, and interactive features that have been used on the site. The features can be searched by specific topics or names, and the user will get a list of all of the stories that relate to their search. While this archive is free, the story archive would cost a user to access a story. When a user searches the site for a specific issue, topic, or person, all of the video, photo galleries, and interactive features will pop up in a list in the center of the page. In a column on the right side of the screen, a link to the stories from the archive that relate to the search and multimedia will be offered, along with a very short summary of the story. If a user chooses, they can click on that link to be taken to the page where they can pay for that story. I think that this would make the archived stories more accessible to the users, along with the multimedia that has been used on the site.
The specific types of multimedia to be used depends greatly on what the site is all about and what the target audience is. If the target audience is an older generation, the multimedia could just end up confusing them. But with an audience made up of users aged from middle school all the way to recent college graduates, they expect more multimedia and know how to use much of the more complicated types of multimedia, so the site’s owner needs to find all of the new technology they can and use it when appropriate. It can add to a story, but if a site uses the new technologies too often, it can overwhelm the site and users could find the site too cluttered for their taste. Also, they could think that the site focuses more on the multimedia and less on the actual user.