Before The Cavalier Daily launched their new website last month, the paper’s digital platform left much to be desired. The section marked “Multimedia” was particularly aggravating and confusing. While the section’s landing page presented photographs and video content, the term “multimedia” was strangely vague and outdated. Galleries referring to a specific event or story were often disconnected from the articles which should have accompanied them. For example, a gallery of photos taken at a concert weren’t linked or noted alongside an Arts and Entertainment review of the same concert.
For the paper at that time, the isolation of photo and video content on the website must have cost something in reputation and readership. Photos and videos can stand alone without articles, but they should also be used to emphasize written content. Visual aids draw the reader’s attention to important facts or people involved in the story being told and occasionally interpret the content, representing an author’s views without words. An article accompanied by a photo gallery or video looks much more interesting to readers, and sometimes provides more information, than a piece with a single headshot at the top.
Even with the introduction of a new website, the paper still struggles to digitally present visual content. The new homepage boasts a “Photo” section, which also contains videos and humorous cartoons. Generalizing the section title to photographs only is hardly better than calling them “multimedia,” and contradicts the URL, which still terms the content “multimedia.” On the landing page, poor organization of the images and videos leaves them out of context with empty-sounding headlines. The gallery titled, “Board of Visitors holds first meeting of the year,” for example, just shows headshots of each Board member without any reference to the importance of the meeting. This section remains a mess on The Cavalier Daily’s new digital platform.
Integrating photo galleries, videos and cartoons into their relevant literary sections is the most cohesive solution to this problem. Galleries and videos associated with University events like protests or administrative meetings should be on the News section landing page. Cartoons should be on the Humor section landing page. Stand-alone photo and video content like the popular “Day of Smiles” video would fit best on the Life section landing page. If the Board of Visitors photo gallery showed up alongside an article about their first board meeting of the year, the photos and the names in the article would have a greater impact.
While a specific landing page for this type of content might seem productive in providing individualized, physical space for images and videos, it undermines the power and sophistication of visual aids in a digital world. Such high-quality products shouldn’t be treated as outside of the world of journalism, as the isolated landing page implies — they should run in conjunction with literary work, supporting articles just as an article’s words support a photo or video. Eliminating the separate “multimedia” section on The Cavalier Daily’s website and including this content on literary landing pages would make visual content more meaningful to readers and give photo and video content the credit it is due.
Candace Carter is the Public Editor for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com.
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