Multimedia and the Budget

The story in question can be viewed here

I find this bundle of media to be very effective in showing the viewer what the impact and legislation of the enormous ten year budget is going to be. I’ll break the package into it’s component parts.

The Printed Story:
The printed story goes over several key areas of the story behind the budget. The first part focuses on the budgets aims are and how much it will cost. The second portion looks at President Obama’s efforts in creating the budget, examining the sectors where he wants the money to go and which the sectors where he is planning to cut funding. The story than switches to the methods that will be used in paying for the budget, focusing on the taxation of wealthy individuals and business. Finally, the story ends with the fears expressed by some legislators over the colossal amount of money proposed to be spent. I found the story to be informative and diligent in answering the major questions of the deal behind the budget.

The Graphic:
There are two parts to the graphic. The graph gives detailed information of government spending, earning, and the related deficit issues over an 80 year period. Under it, you have some bullet points as to where the money will come from and where it will go. I liked this graphic because it gives a more thorough look at the money issues of the budget and gives the reader a little look at the history of budgets.

The Pod cast:
This was my favorite part of the news package. The writer of the story, 25 year Washington reporter Jackie Calmes, gives the lowdown on the authorship of the budget, where she thinks the money is going, and some insider information on who she thinks will oppose some of Obama’s budget cuts. It was very cool to hear the journalist talk about what she learned while working on this story.

The Video:
The video was interesting too. It goes over Obama’s announcement of the budget and outlines where the money is going as well as where funding is going to be cut. This was a basic rundown of what is talked about in the article, condensed into a few minutes.