I was checking the New York Times today when I came across this article related to the Beirut port explosion that took place earlier this 2020. As far as I'm concerned, I probably think this is one of the best journalistic reports and articles that I've read in a loooooong time (and watching the news lately, at least in Spain, I never thought I'd see such a good quality in any news papers, I really thought good journalism died 10 years ago).

This article not only shines because of it's ridiculously good content , well planned story telling and international journalistic investigation, but also because of the fantastic way they present the information to the end user. What I would like to talk about today is how well planned journalism, joined with correct technologies can present the information in a much more realistic and understanding way that helps the user keep up with the pace of the story.

This is a lesson that holliwood learned long time back. It's the main reason why we keep seeing films made by Michael Bay or JJ Abrahams, and why they are allowed to retell stories like the new generation of Star wars films over and over again depsite the fact their plots are full of holes and their stories make no sense whatsoever.

The article starts with a well set , well planned 3D model of the place that clearly gives in a very visual explanation of how it all started. The website cleverly uses time controls that advance through the video as you scroll up or down in a very intuitive way that allows you to have full control of what you are watching. 

The article cleverly transitions from image based video to panned text.

Having a video in sync with your scrolling via embeddable html is not the biggest challenge for a programmer. However, allowing for the video to make such sense of control gives the user enough detail to understand what is going on throughout the explanation, and for the user to pause and have control about what information he wants to see and for how long he wants to pay attention to it. 

The NYTimes crew has put a lot of effort into this visual experience, not only planning on the website design but also on the video input that would take place as the user was reading the article.

Now, wether you like to read liberal or conservative media, I think we can agree that good journalism is that which properly and correctly explains a true story and presents it to the end user in such a way that she (or he) understands what happened and why the story took place.  To accomplish this, they also accompany their good story with good photography and skillful shots of what explains the story.

In my opinion, a really good grasp on this terrible incident. One that has been presented so properly and in such a brilliant manner that deserves a special notation to how good and well planned work looks like.   To the NYTimes I say.. "Mis dieses".