By: Pauline Millard Every now and then I'll read a column or an Op-Ed by some newspaper veteran who thinks that moving news to Internet will hurt the quality of the finished product. They fear that the need to get things up quickly will sacrifice full reporting. Such an idea could not be further from the truth.
Case in point: The Washington Post's latest Dana Priest-Anne Hull probe, published in the print edition on Sunday and Monday
multimedia special report about Walter Reed medical center. The veterans' hospital has been in the news a lot lately for some of its subpar conditions. The report this time focuses mainly on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and how it affects troops' lives once they are back in the states.
Online, the package includes videos with soldiers talking about their illness, as well as Vietnam veterans and medical experts who have experienced the condition. But audio slideshows, often under utilized, are also an efficiant tool for telling this story. In about three and a half minutes we learn about the IED blast that triggered the symptoms for these soldiers, how these men watched their friend's body bag get carted off in the back of a truck and what life is like now that they're back home.
In addition to the videos and slideshows, there is a resource page about PTSD as well as past Washington Post stories about Walter Reed and the Iraq war. All in all, The Post created a comprehensive overview of veterans' struggles with PTSD in easy to understand installments. It's well produced and researched, and not one tree was killed in the process.
As you may know, Pauline's Picks is a new daily feature on innovative or exceptional Web features, so feel free to send me links that you think should be hat-tipped here.
In case you missed them, past Picks:
The Miami Herald's
'What The Five!'Podcasts on
The New York TimesSFGate.com Tells Local Stories -- With
Audio Slideshows
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