Great multimedia piece on 9:30 Club

This feature from the Washington Post's website demonstrates why the internet is such a powerful reporting tool.

The feature I've linked to is a package about Washington's famous 9:30 Club, one of the country's most celebrated venues for rock concerts. The reason the feature is so impressive is because it includes nearly every possible form of reporting: audio, video, photos, text and interactivity.

The link will take you directly to a video of a typical concert night at 9:30 -- it shows the lines, the performers, the stage, the crowds and the people working there. It is backed by the sound of live music, which is an effective tool to hold the viewer's attention and also to give viewers a sense of what kind of music you could expect to see on a given night. At the top of the story, there is an easily navigable collection of photos that serves essentially as a timeline of the club's history. If you click on one of the photos, you can read text about milestone performances or significant events in the 9:30 Club's storied history. There are write-ups by the authors of this package, but there also are transcriptions from interviews as well, providing a balanced and unique means of relaying information. Some of the interviews are amazing for music nerds like me: stories about Will Smith, Prince, The Police all performing (or trying to perform) at the 9:30 club despite it having notorious rat problems and being too small for most big-time acts to accommodate fans.

Packages like this are so much less static than simple text stories or even photo/video slideshows. Future generations of reporters (read: us) should take note of bundles like these and aim to duplicate them. For interested readers/viewers, a simple text story or audio clip just isn't enough. Journalism on the internet is quickly changing, perhaps even evolving, to become more artistic, more creative, and more inclusive. While a bit daunting, packages like this do show us the future, don't you think?