Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek Commentary
Depicting the horrifying story of a group of skiers trapped in the center of a devastating avalanche in 2012.
"Each snowflake added to the depth, and each snowflake added to the weight. It might take a million snowflakes for a skier to notice the difference. It might take just one for a mountain to move."
The multimedia piece was written by John Branch – New York Times reporter. To effectively portray the tone and content, the article employs traditional written language available in all classic periodicals as well as various types of media.
traditional written language available in all classic periodicals, as well as various types of media. Audio samples, video, images, and automated animations are also employed and displayed over a sequence of three-dimensional maps.
These various media formats are employed as tools that assist the readers in further grasping the whole context of the incident – making the multimedia article less complicated.
What makes Snow Fall different from other publications?
Easy!
Establishes a great opener.
Snow Fall included a great illustration that allows the readers to have an initial thought about what the whole article is about. Also, putting more emphasis on the technicality of the text, the title itself, "Snow Fall," was written with sedateness. This sets the overall tone and establishes the entire story topic.
Reveals the power of description.
It gave life to the avalanche.
Telling a real story and making it realistic are two different things, with each having their own difficulties. However, John Branch didn’t step down from the challenge. Snow Fall (as mentioned earlier) tells the real-life story of skiers who faced a catastrophic incident as they were swallowed alive by the avalanche.
Branch didn’t miss using a great figurative speech in which he personified the Avalanche and
Portrayed it as "the enemy" of the story.
"…fresh, soft snow — instantly became the enemy."
How every event was paired with a description helped the readers a lot on how to picture the occurrence more accurately. Also, the way that the texts were verbalized like a novel tingles the mind of a novel reader like me. The use of a lot of similes and metaphors was highly appreciated.
Multimedia publication breakthrough
When we talk about multimedia publication, it means a publication that incorporates various kinds of media (photos, moving images, audio recording, etc.). John didn’t disappoint when he embedded a short video clip of the interview of Elyse Saugstad as she was "mummified" by the horrifying avalanche, a slideshow of photos (with corresponding relevant captions), moving pictures, and even a three-dimensional map.
Bonus: The character’s name, age, and title are embedded in a clickable link in the respective selection that they were mentioned. – A very smart way to include the audience in the life of the character beyond what is mentioned in the selection. To give the readers a sense of reality. Seeing the names with the included photo and identification makes it feel more authentic.
With the recognition received, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and a Peabody Award come with the inspiration it imparts to the future of news and magazine publication. A cross between the print and digital worlds of publication.
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My favorite thing is how lowkey uncomfortable Branch's brothers look when they find out Branch highkey replaced them with a new band/found family after they left LOLOL
JD and Clay being quick to crack incredibly forced jokes to cover up the awkwardness of the situation ooo
And you KNOW the Kismet trolls probably think so fucking lowly of all of them too if Branch confided in them over everything that happened throughout the years rrrrr
I think the brothers would definitely take personal issue with particular members too uh ohh the girls are fightingg
and they know they have no right to be mad cause they are the ones who walked out and never came back but they're gonna be bitter anyway <333 i love troll drama
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