Multimedia Michael Mason FBI

This multimedia is about an African American FBI agent. It showed some really good "day in the life" photos that allowed the viewer to see what this agent does on a day to day basis. Michael MAson is one of the highest ranking FBI agents and he explained how some may look down upon him because of his color. The Washington Post most likely put this mulimedia up because it is Black History month.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/blackmen/blackmen.html
I think this is a nice way to profile someone. We get to see pictures and hear his voice. It seems as if it is a quicker way to interview someone. It is mearly his voice, and no reporter voice asking him questions. I like this way better than maybe just watching this on T.V. for a number of reasons. This is short and sweet. It gets all of the interesting stuff, including background information on Mason. He goes through a sort of, timeline of his life, speaks of his trials, and also speaks of his successes. This slide show did a great job not distracting me while I was listening, and it followed what Mason was saying. The slides each connected with what he was saying, so as not to distract the reader.
I also like this because I just saw a profile that I most likely would have never seen or read on T.V. It was an easy "click" for me to find a little bit more about Mason and his life. If this were a news show, I probably would have switched the channel because for one I would not know who this guy was so I would lose interest before I was told who he was, and two the broadcast would have probably been far too long, making the piece lose alot of it's important qualities.
All and all I think these multimedia slideshows really give the reader or viewer something new. It is a simple way to learn a little something extra that one may not have seen or read on the news. And having the pictures along with the voice with no reporter asking questions is kind of nice, its as if Mason was telling us a story.
I have a feeling mulitmedia slideshows will be more common in the coming years. I do like watching interviews on 60 minutes or on other news shows, but for a quick profile that I probably would have missed reading in the paper or news, I think is a great idea. I especially enjoyed this one. I feel like I know Mason through this quick 2.32 minute show.
The biggest strength here would be the brievity of the profile. The weakness here would be, sometimes people do like to see the mouth moving, it gives more emotion and allows people to connect to the subject. I don't think I would like to see the news turn into this, but again as I have said above, for a profile like this, it is perfect. I now know about Mason, the top african american FBI agent. It is a fact I probably would not have known prior to this multi media show.
The only thing excluded was what I mentioned above. The small movements of the mouth. Here, I don't feel it takes anything away, but I think it may in a different type of news cast.