After our discussion today in class about where to draw the line between respecting an individual’s right to be left alone and approaching a person going through something painful, I found the multimedia story “Hillside Display of Crosses: A War of Emotions” to be appropriate. The story chronicled the range of emotions and opinions over an anti-war memorial display in California. The war in Iraq is one of the most divisive topics among Americans today, and the journalist Pauline Lubens captured the strong emotions on both sides.
The most compelling moment in the piece comes when the father of a solider killed in combat orders the artist of the memorial display to remove his son’s name from the crosses. This portion of the story elevated it from an observational view of the issue to placing the audience in the center of the argument. Visually, the story was interesting in its own right. The photos of the stark white crosses, blended with photos of deceased soldiers and grieving family members conveyed the main issue of the story without words. This story exemplified the way multimedia can be an excellent forum for journalists to capture stories through audio, photography and video.
-Abbie Schmid
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