With the small scale project completed I am now able to look back and reflect. My partner and I have created The Case of Maria, an interactive non fiction platform that explores the unsolved abduction and murder of Maria Ridulph. While The Case of Maria is not what we initially thought we would create, I still believe that we have created a project relevant to our initial intent regardless.

The Case of Maria was produced with the intent of focusing on two major characteristics of many online screen productions- hyperlink driven and cross platform. These qualities guided the process of creating the project. The Case of Maria is a centralised platform that incorporates various media pieces including video, photographs, news articles and hyperlinks to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The main challenge we encountered was creating an interactive cross platform project that engaged with audiences enough to motivate them to click the hyperlinks and essentially cross platforms. When faced with the issue of modularity, we realised that having separate media products on separate platforms with hyperlinks between them would be disengaging. Therefore, we decided to centralise all fragments of the project onto one centralised platform. The major aspect of the project is the videos, broken into two chapters, which chronologically outline the case of Maria Ridulph. The videos are uploaded onto YouTube, and provide hyperlinks back to the major platform. Moreover, we also provided hyperlinks to a Maria Ridulph Facebook group and the #mariaridulph feed on Instagram.

Creating the project allowed me to focus on the overriding characteristic of interactivity, as both the qualities of cross platform and hyperlink driven are innately interactive. Relative to the difficulties of incorporating the cross platform characteristic, we also struggled to generate audience interaction. Creating this project has allowed me to understand content creation with the intention of generating audience interaction. As I reflected on in my third development post, I have never thought about audience interaction from the perspective of the producer. While it is relatively simple to create numerous media artefacts on various platforms, generating audience interaction is actually relatively difficult. In the end we decided to utilise not only structure but content to attempt to generate audience interaction. At the end of the second video we asked the question ‘Who do you believe is the perpetrator?’ and also included a poll on the website with the same question. The intent behind this was to urge the audience to click on the hyperlinks and obtain a better understanding of the case so as to generate an opinion on the case and answer the question.

Throughout the process of developing the idea for The Case of Maria and also producing it I found myself grappling with the concept of linearity, as I explored in my fourth development post. While my partner and I were sure that the overall project would be non-linear due to its interactive components, I was more focussed on how we would portray the case in video form. The intention for the videos was to give an outline of the overall case. The videos were intended to be supplemented with the other forms of media and hyperlinks. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I wanted the videos to be linear and I explored ways in which to present the narrative in a non-linear manner. However, for the purpose of audience comprehension I believed it would be more effective in linear form. I would, however, like to further explore creating non linear work in an interactive situation.

While I believe that what we have created is an example of an interactive media project, I would like to create something much more immersive and consequentially more interactive. The question I have about the changing landscape of new media is, is this just the start of audience interaction or can it be taken to another level? How far will the ever evolving technology take interaction? Is it possible for lines between content producer and audience to be blurred even further?

 

 

 

The Case of Maria

 

The concept of linearity is something that I need to clarify my understanding of. I have always believed that a linear media piece is something that starts at the beginning of a story and finishes at the end. Linear narrative can be defined as ‘a story which may contain stylistic or temporal discontinuities such as flashbacks, but which is nevertheless conventionally read or told from the beginning to the end, in contrast to an interactive or hypertext narrative’ (Chandler & Munday 2011) .

So what makes something non linear? Is linearity only appropriate if there is a story? Is linearity based on chronological order? If linear narrative is conceived as being sequential then doesn’t that inherently make any interactive form of media non-linear? Seeliger et al (2010) describe non-linear video ‘as an approach, which makes video content at interactive experience’.

Linearity is highly relevant to the project we are creating and it also links back to audience interaction. Our intent is to take different fragments of Maria Ridulph’s case and upload  them onto a central platform, including photographs and newspaper articles. However, we also want to include the narrative of the case in the form of a video. I believe that the video’s will best portray the narrative in linear form. In this way, the project is both linear and non linear, however in its entirety I believe that it is non-linear.

In terms of audience interaction, content is another aspect we could incorporate in order to generate audience engagement. As the case we are presenting is an unsolved murder mystery, the project could be utilised to provoke the audience to consider who they believe the suspect to be. This could be achieved through asking this very question at the end of the video or by including a poll on the website, separate to the video. Another option is to create a separate poll and provide a hyperlink to this poll on the website.

Seeliger, R, Rack C & Arbanowski, S 2010, ‘Non-Linear Video: A Cross-Platform Interactive Video System’, SMPTE Annual Tech Conference & Expo, Hollywood, CA, pp.1-9

Chandler, D & Munday, R 2011, ‘Dictionary of Media and Communication’, Oxford University Press

Daniel Chandler and Rod Munday

This week in class we discussed Manovich’s (2001) work ‘The Language of New Media’, in particular the principles of new media he outlined in his work. An aspect of this discussion that struck me as relevant to the project we’re developing is the principle ‘modularity’ (Manovich 2001). This principle refers to how online media can be broken down into separate modules.  The question this principle begs about new media, however, is how each piece of separate media can function both separately and as a whole? This question has major implications on not only the way in which we think about media as a whole but also specifically to our project as well.

One of the major formal qualities we intended to incorporate into our project was cross platform which involves an inherent modularity. The potential for people to come across one singular piece of media from a platform is high and therefore it is important for context to be given, or for that piece of media to be able to function singularly. This understanding has changed the way in which I now think about how we are going to produce this project. Given the context of the project, a better outcome might be achieved if we eliminate the cross platform quality and incorporate another one. Our idea at the moment is to create a non fiction interactive piece focusing on a non fiction narrative based on the murder case of Maria Ridulph. Therefore, keeping each piece of media centralised to a singular platform might create more coherence and audience comprehension.

The interesting thing completing this project has allowed me to do is to understand new media theory from a producer’s perspective. As an audience I can easily acknowledge that cross platform modular media projects can function, for example a magazine company may produce a short video/article on snapchat with a link to ‘view the full article’ on their web page. If I am intrigued by the video then I may click on the link to the webpage. This kind of cross platform media functions both separately and as a whole. However, as a content creator I need to be able to create a media project that works cohesively whilst being modular. There are a number of options we could explore to achieve this including creating context through captions that urge the viewer to watch it chronologically. Or we could use other pieces of media such as photographs on other platforms and portray the narrative in a non linear manner.

Manovich, L 2001, ‘The Language of New Media’, The MIT Press, pp. 18-31