JOURN 110 Critique a piece of multimedia
For this assignment, I’ve chosen to critique the New York Times’ August 5, 2016 publication called “The Fine Line: Simone Biles Gymnastics,” linked here. A screenshot of this package is included below — however, since this is an interactive multi-page package, I would strongly recommend using the link instead, so that the cover photo isn’t the only one representative of the piece as a whole.
Overall, I enjoyed this multimedia package a great deal: the piece is a brief overview of Olympic gold gymnast Simone Biles, focusing on her specialty moves and what sets her apart from her competition. The package itself is constructed neatly and easy to follow, incorporating a linear progression pairing gifs, videos, and analytical graphics with text to give the viewer a clear depiction of Biles and her prodigious ability. It begins with introducing Biles and her accomplishments, and gets more in-depth as it goes on with regards to how she achieved those accomplishments. I liked this multimedia package because it gave an interesting and informative amount of information within a succinct time frame. There was no one slide that had an overwhelming amount of text to slog through – on the contrary, I was impressed with how the minimal amount of information on each slide coalesced to form an engaging piece. It represented a good use of multimedia in that it incorporated pictures, videos, gifs, and analytical infographics, and combined these with text in order to give the viewer the greatest understanding of the talent demonstrated by Biles. I thought this was a very effective way to present the topic, namely because Biles is a subject that relies solely on the visual approval of her audience, mentors, and judges – therefore, a visual medium would be much more applicable from an informational standpoint, as opposed to simply reading an article or block of text.
This package was an appropriate length for keeping me interested and engaged in the subject without being too long or having to omit important information for the sake of brevity. Since one of the main focuses was on breaking down Biles’ ability to pull off particular stunts due to her unique physical agility, the creators were able to hone in on the visual exploration of this topic and minimize other aspects of Biles’ career or past. They provided an adequate amount of peer and mentor interjections, as well as childhood context, to buttress the “meat” of the package without detracting from the overall theme.
The one aspect I would change about this package is the use of the gifs at the very beginning: the gifs only cycle through once, and I would prefer that they be on a constant loop so that there is no awkward freeze frame if the reader is not yet finished with reading the accompanying text on the page. I also really enjoyed the slides in this package that layered the text over a gif, instead of separating them into two distinct spaces, so I would personally like to see more of that. However, for the sake of engagement and variety, I would be cautious not to overdo it or make anything completely uniform.
