CC BY
0THE IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON LONGREADS AND
NONFICTION PUBLISHING
Urinova M.
Researcher of Journalism and Mass Communications University of Uzbekistan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13623196
Abstract. This article discusses how digital media has revolutionized the news industry, making it more accessible, interactive, and immediate. With the rise of smartphones, tablets, and computers, news is now available around the clock and enriched with multimedia elements such as text, images, videos, and interactive features. This transformation has led to the emergence of digital-only news outlets, known as "pure players, " which compete with traditional media through innovative content and subscription models. A key development in this landscape is the rise of longreads —long-form journalism that integrates detailed reporting with immersive narrative techniques and multimedia elements. Longreads, typically exceeding 1,500 words, offer an engaging and comprehensive storytelling experience enhanced by features like "parallax scroll," looping videos, and interactive graphics. The interactive documentary, a recent innovation in digital journalism, demonstrates this shift by combining original research with multimedia and immersive elements to create interactive, engaging narratives. This article examines the evolution of storytelling in the digital age, focusing on how longreads and interactive documentaries represent new, dynamic formats in journalistic storytelling.
Keywords: digital media, multimedia journalism, longreads, interactive documentary, narrative journalism, storytelling, digital transformation, interactive graphics, immersive journalism.
Digital media has fundamentally transformed the news industry, making it more accessible, interactive, and immediate. With the rise of smartphones, tablets, and computers, news is now available 24/7, allowing people to stay informed on the go. This shift has introduced multimedia integration, where text is combined with images, videos, podcasts, and interactive elements, creating a more engaging and immersive experience. Real-time reporting and live streaming have become standard, enabling instant updates and transparency during breaking news events. Digital platforms also personalize news content for users through algorithms, ensuring that readers see stories relevant to their interests. This has made news consumption more tailored and engaging, with news aggregators like Google News providing a broad view of daily events. The cost-effectiveness of digital distribution has led to the rise of digital-only news outlets, known as "pure players," which compete with traditional media by offering innovative content and subscription models.
The shift to digital news has been swift and unstoppable. Back in the 1996 U.S. presidential election, only 2% of Americans reported getting their news online, with around 60% relying on television and 50% on newspapers. By 2016, however, a Pew Research Center analysis showed that television and digital news were the most popular sources, with 78% and 65% of Americans using them during the U.S. presidential campaign, while newspaper usage had dropped to 36%, nearly half of its previous peak.
"Multimedia is the future," said Mike Chinoy, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute, during a talk to journalism students at Tsinghua School of
Journalism and Communication in October 2014. "This is the direction the news industry is heading. Multimedia offers a new way to tell stories—it's not just a newspaper, a TV network, radio, or a magazine. It breaks away from traditional formats."
Multimedia platforms are great tools for bringing your stories to life, adding layers of depth and insight that make them more engaging. There are many forms of multimedia journalism out there, and new ones are popping up all the time. For anyone just starting out in the field, here are some of the most helpful ones to know about:
- Breaking news, columns, commentary, feature stories
- Blogs
- Photography
- Slideshows and photo galleries
- Slideshows with sound
- GIFs
- Audio and audio podcasts
- Videos and video podcasts
- Informational graphics
- Interactive graphics, including data visualization
- Animated graphics
- Virtual reality storytelling
- Artificial intelligence
It is not enough to just mix text and video and call it a multimedia project. "The goal is to move beyond simply throwing together text and video, and understanding how everything works together," says Paige Williams, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a professor at Missouri School of Journalism. Kyle James from onmedia.com adds that using the strengths of each medium allows reporters to tell a more compelling story.
Here's a quick look at some of the benefits different multimedia platforms can offer:
- Multimedia helps you explain your story
- Multimedia can add depth and insight to your storytelling
- Multimedia can tell your story better than simply using text
- Multiple media elements add a human voice, face
- Multimedia lets reader interact with the story
- Multiple media vary your presentation
- Photo galleries can supplement or substitute for print stories
- Slideshows with sound combine visual, audio storytelling
- Podcasts explore subjects in detail
- Videos show, rather than tell
- Interactive maps give location, detail
- Animated or interactive graphics explain complicated concepts in detail
- Data visualization allows your audience to interact with information and find their own stories in your data
- Multimedia enhances your credibility by supplying supporting documents and material
Digital media has revolutionized narrative journalism, especially in the realm of longreads. These in-depth stories now blend text with videos, audio, and interactive graphics, creating
immersive experiences that go beyond traditional journalism. Longreads take full advantage of the digital world, offering readers rich, multimedia-rich narratives that are both engaging and informative. The ability to personalize content means that readers are more likely to encounter longreads that resonate with their interests, while real-time updates keep these stories relevant and dynamic. Digital platforms also allow longreads to reach a global audience, making them a powerful tool for sharing diverse perspectives and tackling complex issues.
A key form of literary journalism is the "longread," a style of long-form journalism. Many American journalists, like M.J. Tenore, N. Angier, and M. Armstrong, believe that long-form journalism represents high-quality writing. These articles are known for their deep reporting and ability to leave a lasting impact on readers, "more tools to give them a longer lifespan," big ideas, beautifully crafted structures, and having more than 1,500 words [8]. Simply put, a "longread" is a type of long-form journalism that offers a high-quality, detailed literary journalism piece. It is rich with insights, uses storytelling techniques typically found in fiction, and often incorporates multimedia elements. These stories usually exceed 1,500 words.
In the realm of digital journalism, longreads often integrate multimedia elements like videos, interactive graphics, and audio, enhancing the storytelling experience by adding layers of information and engagement. Digital platforms enable longreads to create immersive environments with interactive content, making the reading experience more engaging and encouraging deeper reader involvement. Unlike print, digital longreads are easily accessible to a global audience, can be shared widely, and benefit from various distribution and monetization models, such as subscriptions and ad support. Additionally, digital platforms provide data on reader engagement, allowing journalists to refine their storytelling techniques and enhance the overall experience. This makes longreads a powerful tool in digital journalism, combining depth and narrative richness with the interactivity and accessibility of online media.
Digital longreads, which combines text and multimedia, is becoming widely acknowledged as a compelling method of journalistic storytelling. Jacobson, Marino, and Gutsche [5] describe long-form journalism as a developing genre in digital media that aims to engage audiences by blending text with elements like photographs, looping videos, dynamic maps, and data visualizations into a cohesive narrative. This genre introduces several new features, such as simplified navigation and user-friendly interfaces, which, along with seamless transitions between multimedia content, create a more immersive and slower-paced reading experience. Dowling and Vogan [2] note that long-form journalism often aims to create a "cognitive container," a focused environment that shields readers from the distractions of typical web browsing, allowing for deeper immersion in the story. This approach contrasts sharply with the fast-paced, fragmented nature of most online news consumption [1].
Recent studies on long-form journalism have pointed out how multimedia elements play a crucial role in keeping readers engaged [3]. One standout feature is the "parallax scroll," where different parts of the content move at varying speeds as you scroll, which Jacobson, Marino, and Gutsche [5] describe as a hallmark of this new style of storytelling. Other key features of longform journalism include the use of looping videos with a single continuous shot and smooth transitions between text and visuals [4]. These elements, combined with a streamlined user interface, create what Dowling and Vogan [2] call a "cinematic" effect. Jacobson, Marino, and Gutsche [5] note that the integration of multimedia in long-form journalism has allowed the genre
to adapt traditional literary techniques to a new context. Thus, long-form journalism is not just a showcase of technological capability; multimedia is central to its storytelling approach.
In recent years, there has been a growing focus on what is traditionally known as "multimedia," particularly within the field of multimodal research. This area examines how various modes of communication — such as language, images, typography, and layout—interact and work together in different contexts [6]. Understanding these differences is crucial for explaining the impact of digital long-form journalism. While both traditional online news and long-form pieces use similar communication modes, they configure these elements differently to provoke distinct reactions from their audiences [2]. In essence, multimodal theories can shed light on how long-form journalism creates a "cognitive container" that effectively engages and captivates its readers.
Storytelling is experiencing a dramatic shift in the digital age, with new techniques emerging that allow for interactive, immersive, and multi-media narratives. New narrative structures are being crafted from data and presented in dynamic formats. This chapter explores this transformation through the lens of the interactive documentary—a new form of digital journalism that has evolved over the past twenty years. Interactive documentaries combine original research and reporting with various media and immersive environments to engage audiences deeply, allowing them to interact with the content, the storyteller, and each other.
Storytelling in longreads is a distinctive form of journalism that blends detailed reporting with immersive narrative techniques. Unlike shorter news articles, longreads dive deep into their subjects, offering a comprehensive and engaging exploration. They start with compelling openings or anecdotes that draw readers in and maintain their interest through a structured narrative arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
These stories often focus on individual characters or profiles, providing a human element that makes complex topics more relatable. Vivid descriptions and atmospheric tones create a sensory-rich experience that helps readers visualize and connect with the story. Longreads also frequently incorporate multimedia elements like photos, videos, and interactive features to complement the text and enhance engagement.
The reflective and analytical nature of longreads allows for deep exploration of themes and critical examination of issues, encouraging readers to think deeply and empathetically about the subject matter. By combining thorough research, engaging narratives, and multimedia integration, longreads offer a powerful way to convey complex stories, leaving a lasting impression on readers.
The digital and online landscape provides journalists with new opportunities to enhance their stories through diverse multimedia elements, increasing both their reach and interactivity. This enhances the accessibility and potential for reader engagement and discussion. However, traditional journalistic principles, such as maintaining a clear "reality boundary," [7] remain crucial even in digital formats.
While multimedia and interactive features can add depth and authenticity to a narrative, an excessive amount of sensory input can distract readers and reduce the immersive quality of the story. According to feedback from industry professionals, the ability to facilitate public discussion and increase shareability is seen as more critical than simply adding video, audio, or other sensory elements. Thus, transforming text-based stories into participatory and conversational experiences is considered more valuable than the use of multimedia alone.
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