I happened upon my topic for this week when I googled (is that even a word?) a phrase that came up on NCIS, so it is slightly random, but anyway.
There was a movie that came out in 1984 starring Farrah Fawcett called “The Burning Bed.” The link to the IMDB site is http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087010/. The movie follows the life and trial of Francine Hughes, a severely battered woman who finally snapped and doused her husband in gasoline while he was asleep in bed and, in essence, killed him before he even realized what happened.
The website that I chose to do this week was centered around the movie but ties in a lot of other things like domestic violence cases from the past 30 years or so, Hughe’s case, statistics surrounding domestic violence, the laws that have been put in place and Fawcett’s death among other things, but the interesting thing is that all of these stories are tied together very well.
The link to the interactive gallery at the Lansing State Journal is: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/section/news0101
What they did right:
- They seem to have covered every aspect of this topic that they could have, I don’t see where they left anything out.
- Put human faces on domestic violence
- Gained interest through the fact that Farrah Fawcett had recently died and really reeled readers in with the movie tie in.
- Includes at least ten news articles on various angles
- They make sure to cover all sides that they could on the Hughes trial, her attorney, the movie, the advocate, the judge and the police.
- Includes a Webcast called: Domestic Violence in your Community, which allows for interaction from the readers.
- Contains links to the articles and materials within the multimedia presentation, but also below the articles are listed individually.
- All articles allow for readers to post comments.
- Includes audio when it was available.
- Includes video when it was available.
- Has very colorful and easy to read graphs with the statistics of homicide and injury, victim/offender, seeking shelter and filing for protection.
- Includes short articles of all laws that have been enacted since Hughes killed her husband.
- Another thing that I think is truly amazing is that they have loaded digital versions of all of the news articles that pertain to the original case so that the readers can go back and read what isn’t in the news articles that have been released recently. They also include pictures from her trial.
What they could have done better:
- Once you click on an article from the multimedia platform, it took me too long to figure out how to scroll down to see the rest of the article. They need to work on that, because a lot of people would just go on to the next thing if they couldn’t figure out how to read more easily.
- The extra material from the archives takes forever to load, which may be due to their attempts to maintain quality of images, but we are in an age where we want information now, so people probably won’t stick around and the pictures and articles are really worth seeing.
Overall, I would say that this presentation by the Lansing State Journal is pretty exemplary. It does an amazing job of tying a old story to the present and covering all sides of the story in a way that is relatively simple for reader’s to click through, it gives the option to learn more if you choose and it does so in a way that is pleasing to the eye and doesn’t confuse the readers.
I think I may have to add this movie to my Netflix cue now that I know more information about it!
I noticed the same thing on NCIS, it’s crazy how many people are beginning to watch that show, and for the most part agree completely with what you have posted here.
Agreed! Nice job by this paper. Good timing on their part too. This sort of story takes a lot of planning (pulling together the paper’s research dept [if they have one], graphic artists, writers, multimedia folks, etc.) Is it worth it? I would argue yes, for this kind of story, which has a strong local angle, and which is a CRITICAL issue to keep in the public eye, if for no other reason that it happens behind closed doors. This multimedia presentation can stay up for some time, and could be updated fairly easily (adding new data to charts, etc.)
They did a nice job of bringing the different elements of this package together — the video serves a purpose, the photos of the actual news articles lend authenticity to the story, etc., they offer feedback, etc. And they even have a pop culture hook.
One gripe — I wish when journalists did charts, they would give rates or percentages rather than just raw numbers. That way we know to what degree increases in something like incidences of abuse merely reflect population increase in the area. Also, they need to clearly state that these are REPORTED incidents, especially for a crime like this that people are hesitant to report.
Nice find, Shea. I enjoyed it.