Time’s outstanding piracy piece

Today I read a multimedia piece done by Time Magazine’s Adam McCauley concerning the increasing problem of piracy in waters outside southeast Asia. McCauley and Time used multiple types of media to tell the story, and it blended together to make a piece that gave the reader a good understanding of the problem at hand.

McCauley opened up the article by dishing out statistics to catch the reader's attention and to bring a sense of importance to the issue. He discussed the amount of money that pirates in southeast Asian waters make off of their loot (which is mainly oil). He also talked about the high death rate caused by piracy and the recent increase in dangerous activity; in doing this, McCauley captured the reader’s attention immediately.

Once the reader realized the importance of the issue at hand, Time laid on the multimedia flare. Prize-worthy photography and a gripping video package allowed the reader to feel as if they were side-by-side with the pirates themselves.

Another helpful aspect of the piece was the map, created by Time’s Heather Jones, which detailed the ship highways in which oil pirates prey.

McCauley also had an impressive collection of sources to enhance his article. In a piece that highlighted all the reasons why piracy is such a rising, unstoppable issue, McCauley needed to get quotes from those who are trying to stop it- and he did just that.

But I believe that the best part of the article was its organization. As the reader, I knew little to nothing about piracy in southeast Asia before reading the article. By breaking his writing up into sections that outlined different causes for the piracy problem, McCauley made it easy to understand and follow the issue.

Between his solid writing and organization, McCauley and Time produced a great multimedia piece that let the reader learn in multiple ways. Time’s pictures, illustrations, video packages and organized writing made this an effective article.