Scott Cheever was accused of killing the local sheriff in the very small town of Mayberry and was assigned to courthouse in Eureka, Kansas.

Ron Sylvester, reporter and multimedia producer for the Eagle, filed regular updates from his smart phone and Bluetooth keyboard. The phone fit in his pocket, and was less obtrusive than a laptop. But technology doesn’t cut it by itself: the essence remains effective storytelling.

“Multimedia is not just about adding a video or audio.  It’s about an experience, using a variety of media parts to make a whole story,” wrote Sylvester.

A designer created a special page on the site concerning the Cheever trial. Daily stories, live updates and other techy projects now had a home.

The day of the verdict, Sylvester filed stories using Yahoo! instant messenger. Everything he typed in the IM was filed live onto the web, “including all typos and the worst sentence I've probably ever written. But we fixed everything within minutes. It was very exciting and quite a rush,” said Sylvester.

He also connected his audio recorder to the audio feed. Using his laptop (not in the courtroom) and free software Audacity, as well as Soundslides Plus, the audio could easily be edited if needed.

“In this case, we decided the emotional testimony is what we wanted, and the audio pared with still could be more powerful than video,” wrote Sylvester.

He also carried around a flash drive memory stick to pick up photos from photographers and file them to the paper.

According to Sylvester, the regular updates actually helped to smoothen out the workflow and write up the ‘traditional’ stories.

“On workflow, the stories for print were actually easier, because of the live updates I’d filed all day. After court ended, I could go online, take the best of what I wanted to use, cut and paste it into a story, write a new lead and smooth out the transitions,” wrote Sylvester.

And with the gained time on the storywriting, Sylvester was able to add a few slideshows and audio clips.

At least from his account, this seems to be the right use of multimedia: improving on the reactivity and storytelling angles of a story, rather than simply throwing in bells and whistles.

Source: Technolo-J