Best Multimedia Package - Over

1st
TIME.com: 21 Days to Baghdad
The inside story of the War in Iraq
2nd
washingtonpost.com: Eyes on the War
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was one of the most intensely photographed wars of our time. Hear from 24 photojournalists about what it took to capture the images presented. (Please use High-Bandwith version.)
3rd
MSNBC.com: Year in Pictures 2003
See the best images from around the world and close to home in "Editor's choice," an audio-driven slide show of images edited by the MSNBC.com multimedia team from approximately one million images viewed during the year. Also, see the winners of "The Week in Pictures" weekly contest in "Reader's Choice" and vote for your favorite image of the year.
HM
www.jacksonville.com: Walking with the Giant
The life story of 3'10" tall Southern Baptist evangelist James "the Giant" Croft is told through a text story, as well as three sections of pictures and audio.
HM
washingtonpost.com: Return to Afghanistan
Video journalist Travis Fox spent three weeks in Afghanistan chronicling the country's attempt to build a modern political order on ancient foundations.

Judge's Comments

Anne Conneen
Time.com, 21 Days to Baghdad
The combination of photography, motion, live audio from battles and spontaneous phone interviews with journalists in the field riveted the judges and put this package above the rest. The integration of all these media created a powerful multimedia experience, and expert production immerses the user in the tension of the war.
Exceptional photojournalism, large-size images that are unique and well-paced added to the impact of this presentation. A useful map graphic and complete caption information enhanced the information value of the package. The motion effect for photo transitions worked fine even though it was not necessary; the judges were divided over whether it was distracting.
Washington Post.com, Eyes on the War
The presentation of such a large volume of work was well organized easy to navigate and easy to understand. All of the elements came together seamlessly. The photos were of the highest quality and were well edited. The overall level of photojournalism was not muddied by redundant images.
Live spontaneous audio from the photographers was very personal and emotional. This differentiated the package from others in which the photographer seems to be reading from a script and sounds monotonous. Introduction with rollovers gives the user a preview of the individual stories with compelling quotes from the audio and a sample photo.
Caption information was complete and layout of the pages was clean. The user had numerous options to control the presentation such as pausing the audio and choosing auto play or navigate manually.
MSNBC.com, Year in Pictures 2003
Moving and riveting. It's major headlines only, but it's an effective compilation of very diverse photographs. The audio editing really sets this package apart from most other multimedia work; the audio is very sophisticated, combining various pieces of music and voice reports to manipulate the intensity of the experience.
Jacksonville.com, Walking with the Giant
Really charming story told with a photo slideshow accompanied by nicely integrated audio from the subject. The story's pacing kept the judges from losing interest. The photos, however, could have used a tighter edit.
washingtonpost.com, Return to Afghanistan
This was the only all-video journalism entry in the category. Video quality is exceptional (for Web video). The storytelling was interesting and delivered a lot of information. The editing was technically very good, but each of the six pieces were too long -- 4 to 7 minutes each. The subtitles were really useful and clear and easy to read. The judges liked the sidebar information, including text facts and a location-specific map, that changed automatically in synchronization with the video as it played.

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