3 characteristics of multimedia stories

A multimedia story is a story that uses a combination of media elements that range from text, still images, audio, video, graphics, animation to maps.

It is undoubtedly the highest form of storytelling, and needs a team of editors, each skilled in one form of media.

This does not mean that an individual can’t produce a multimedia story. He will, however, have to be highly talented and versatile — capable of creating and processing several forms of media.

The term multimedia is sometimes misunderstood. Websites that run text, video and audio stories are referred to as multimedia sites. This is not correct. To be characterised as a multimedia website, the site must run multimedia stories.

So, what are multimedia stories? A multimedia story is one that has the following three characteristics:

1. Use of multiple media
The story is narrated through two or more than two different forms of media. You can use still images, audio and text to tell different parts of the story; you can use an interactive graphic, a map, and a video to tell the story. There is no limitation in selecting the right media. But you have to use two or more forms of media for the story to be called a multimedia story.

2. Storytelling is non-linear
The narrative is not rigid. There is a sequence, but each segment tells a different part of the story. Further, each segment is complete in itself. A user can begin his journey from any element of the multimedia story. The multimedia story is not like a film, where the audience has to watch the film from start to end. It has no choice. The non-linear form of storytelling gives the user a choice to decide what to view first.

3. Information is complementary
Each media tells a different part of the story. There is no overlap. For instance, today media sites publish the text version of the story and also encourage you to view the video version. Both the versions tell the same story. This does not happen in the case of multimedia stories. The repetition is minimal, and all information is complementary.