Flash Journalism - Lauren Zima

I think flash journalism provides so many opportunities to get a reader involved in a story. Studies have shown that the more readers are involved in something, the more information they retain from it. Flash projects will get the reader involved; the reader can click and navigate through them, leading them from one step to the next, and revealing something with each click. The reader is visually stimulated by flash journalism, and this is key.

However, I do feel that there can be too much of a good thing. A site overloaded with flash will turn readers off. Much like there is balance in a solid story, there must be balance of how much of these interactive tools we are using. The brain can be overstimulated as easily as it can be understimulated.

I do think that flash is missing some components that I find interesting, such as video and sound. But, I think it has a lot of capabilities to provide simple and limited amounts of information in an easy fashion. So, depending on your goal in using flash, it can be ideal.