Multi-media Critique: Snow Fall

Snow Fall was a groundbreaking multi-media package curated by the NY Times that seamlessly integrated video, audio and interactive graphics in order to paint a complete picture of an avalanche that killed three skiers.

The reporter chose to separate the piece into various sequential “chapters” ensuring that the reader understood the order of events on that fateful day. Branch and his team of multi-media enthusiasts managed to create an immersive experience that shifted the way in which journalists approached narrative online narrative storytelling. The piece was massively influential and won a Pulitzer and a Peabody Award in 2013.

Snow Fall represents a good use of multi-media as every element is critically important to our understanding of the story as a whole. Many multi-media pieces include useless infographics and haphazardly produced graphs that serve to muddle the author’s points rather than elevate it. Snow Fall’s combination of meteorological GIF’s (depicting how avalanches are typically formed) coupled with numerous video interviews of the skiers caught in the slough serves to paint a more complete picture than words alone ever could. Additionally, the team also utilized user-interface experts in an effort to automatically play videos and GIF’s when the reader scrolled down the page. This created a seamless experience that served to elevate the piece from a mere collection of photos, infographics and videos.

I find it almost impossible to critique Snow Fall as it inspired me to join my HS newspaper Freshman year. However, my one point of contention is its length. Unfortunately, I think that a majority of readers are probably unwilling to invest 30 minutes of their day into reading a piece, regardless of its brilliance. I would be interested to see how many people actually clicked through to the final page of the article as it is a time-consuming read. I personally believe that this piece should be appreciated in its entirety however, and that making it shorter would only serve to weaken the intense emotions that the piece elicits in the reader.

I do think that the piece could have spent more time talking about the victims’ families and their responses to the tragedy and could have incorporated a stronger call to action dissuading skiers from attempting to ski out of bounds. My criticism for this piece is extremely limited however as I still believe it to be the most influential piece of journalism ever produced.