Flash

Since acquiring a very basic understanding of Flash I have called Rachel roughly 15 times with different ideas for multimedia information graphics to include in our Final project. Unfortunately, none of these have had the potential to add depth or interest to our story.

Flash can be a very effective means for displaying relevant, and often complex, information, and I have, without hesitation, thrown Flash into my box of multimedia tools. But, more often than not, I believe Flash media is more fashion than function.

As an amateur multimedia journalist and an online news addict, I am well aware of the amount of time it can take to create AND decipher interactive graphics. And, in my experiences, these graphics are rarely worth the time or effort for either party. They are an excellent way of dressing up a web page, but usually seem to lack content.

So, even though I have been known to wear flip flops on hikes and heels on walking tours, I will kindly ask nytimes.com to spend the extra couple hours reporting and spare me the fancy graphic.