What is multimedia journalism? That’s the question I planned to ask my class (WRI 430) to begin the semester. To have a “multimedia” discussion, I wanted them to be able to interact directly on screen. I needed something that would run in a Web browser because campus IT policy doesn’t allow us to install software in the lab.

I did some initial searching for free online mind-mapping tools, but didn’t have time to dig through all the options. I needed to bounce it off someone, so I asked for help on Twitter:

(Tweet embedded using Blackbird Pie.)

I got a response from a contact I met at a Twitter meetup in Tijuana: @darleneluquin. He recommended MindMeister. We hopped on Gmail chat to coordinate a quick test to see how the real-time collaboration played out on screen. Sure enough, it worked like a charm, identifying each update by author as it was happening. (Thanks again, Jose!)

What is Multimedia Journalism?

In class, we broke down “multimedia journalism” into two parts, starting with a discussion of journalism. As students mentioned an element out loud, I asked them to add a node to our collaborative mind map. You can see how the map developed in this video:

(Video captured using Screenflick.)

In their own words:

Journalism

• A fresh piece of information
• A way of organizing information for the public
• Relevant to people’s daily lives
• Factual
• Human interest

Output through media:

• Audio
• Photo
• Video
• Charts
• Social networking
• Links
• Text
• Online
• Interactive
• Slideshow