Sound with pictures but not quite a slideshow

I’ve been having a look around the blogosphere this afternoon to see what other intrepid audio-visual journalists are offering up on the subject of slideshows and podcasts. Upon my travels I happened upon this example by the New York Times from September 2010. Now, it’s not labelled as an audio slideshow, it’s tagged as ‘interactive’, but to me it’s really an almost-but-not-quite-there-slideshow that would be so much better if it took a couple of extra steps and actually became an audio slideshow.

Take a look and you’ll see what I mean:

 

© New York Times

Now, to me this is an absolutely fascinating topic and one that I’d love to learn more about. The photos are completely engaging, and the testimony of the narrator is enthralling. But unfortunately, much of what is said and much of the power of the images is somewhat taken away by the fact that you have to manually work the slideshow yourself, so to speak. Unlike those that we have discussed so far, this one does not stream continually but instead you must click each picture along as you see fit. So you lose the feeling of unison that is created through writing to picture, and your focus goes slightly awry due to the fact that you must listen and click and read the captions all at the same time. Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m totally unable to multi-task – because I can juggle things like the best of them – but if I’m investing in an audio slideshow, and this is one that I really wanted to watch, then I sort of want it all done for me.

Lazy? Perhaps. But I’d like to think that this journey into the use of online audio has given me a taste of what to expect, and what to desire, when hunting out a slideshow to watch. What really makes them work is that you can be bone idle about it all. Find a subject you’re interested in, or want to learn more about, sit down, hit play and enjoy. You can let the words sweep over you and the pictures jump out at you and for five minutes fully immerse yourself in the subject. That’s what makes a slideshow work. And I think it took an almost-but-not-quite-there one to make me finally appreciate how good they really are when they’re got right.