On the Use of Narrative Structure and Encapsulation for Health-related Stories Contained Within Digital News Packages

Abstract

People rely on the media to serve as purveyors of health information and keep them apprised of current knowledge and advancements in medicine, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and lifestyle management. A digital news package is an immersive feature story housed on the internet and this study examined how the combination of media elements (e.g., photographs, graphics, video, etc.) contained within digital news packages are capable of supporting the presentation of engaging and insightful coverage of health-related topics. Specifically, we investigated what aspects of immersive feature stories should be captured or encapsulated by static and animated graphics, and how these items should be arranged relative to the stories that they accompany. Our findings revealed that effective visual storytelling is facilitated by parity between the written components and visual components of digital news packages.