Multimedia inspiration from #wjchat

On Wednesday, Feb. 24, multimedia journalists from around the country participated in a Web journalism chat moderated by Mark Luckie, author of the blog 10,000 Words and the Digital Journalists Handbook!

Here’s a collection of the top projects mentioned during the chat. #wjchat is a weekly Twitter conversation for web journalists. We talk about all things content, technology, ethics and business of journalism on the web. The next chat will be on Wednesday, March 3 at 7:00 PM CT. In the meantime, you can follow my multimedia Twitter list for additional links from some of the industry’s top multimedia professionals.

Journey to the End of Coal

Journey to the End of Coal is a Web documentary by Samuel Bollendorff and Abel Ségrétin. The project tells the story of millions of Chinese coal miners who are risking their lives to satisfy their country’s appetite for economic growth.

Project recommended by @multimedialinks.

Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan is an expansive look into the daily lives of the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. These images provide an alternative perspective on a changing culture, one different from the destruction and discord that dominates so much media coverage of the region.

Documented by Ed Kashi and produced by MediaStorm, the photographs of Iraqi Kurdistan are presented in flipbook-style animation; gradual changes between still images simulate motion. The thousands of images that comprise this project are as striking as they are bountiful.

Project recommended by @madshrew.

Haiti 360

Haiti 360 is an interactive video showing the destruction in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the earthquake. The video ran on CNN.com and was produced by Immersive Media, a company specializing in 360 video. Side note, the video camera uses 11 lenses and looks like a little disco ball. More information on panoramic photos, video and how to make them is available from 10,000 Words.

Project recommended by @motownmedia.

Mapping LA

Mapping L.A. is resource from the Los Angeles Times to map boundaries, demographics, schools and news within the city. The site was built entirely with free and open-source software, including Django, jQuery, OpenLayers and PostgreSQL.

Project recommended by @michelleminkoff.

Operation Pedro Pan

A database designed to connect with family, friends and fellow Pedro Pan children around the world. The Miami Herald’s goal was to unite people and create a website to preserve the memories of those who made the journey on those flights

Project recommended by @amysimons.

Frozen Land, Forgotten People

In 1966, Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner Robert L. Bennett outlawed development on 1.6 million acres of desert in northeastern Arizona that was claimed by both the Navajo nation and the Hopi tribe. When the freeze ended, many residents didn’t know where to begin. Produced by the @multimedialinks.

Luge Crash at the Olympics

Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luge athlete, was killed during a training run on the Olympic track, which was the fastest track in the world. The frame by frame graphic shows the athlete’s last run and what went wrong on the final turn.

Please note: the final frame of the project shows the moment of the Georgia athlete’s death. For an interesting article on whether the New York Times should have included the image, check out this post by Poynter’s Al Tompkins.

Fifty People One Question

Fifty People One Question is an ongoing social experiment and film series exploring human connections through people and place. The project began in New Orleans in 2008 and has since traveled across the globe, touching millions of viewers. Along the way, the films have captured a small slice of humanity; to discover dreams, losses, reflections, stories and secrets, some shared and some completely unrepeatable.

Project recommended by @3ba.

The Destruction in Port-au-Prince

View satellite photos from GeoEye that show Port-au-Prince before and after the Jan. 12 earthquake. The interactive graphic does an excellent job showing the magnitude of the earthquake’s damage. Produced by The New York Times.

Project recommended by @ethanklapper.

My Picks

Streetlight

Ethiopia is a country rich in culture, history, culinary art and street children. In the capital Addis Ababa more than 100,000 people live on the street – most of them children and youth. Streetlight is a web feature that shows that work carried out by Hope For Children and it has be produced for the organization to create awareness for fundraising purposes.

Streetlight was a commissioned project produced by the Bombay Flying Club for the NGO Hope for Children.

Terremoto en Haití

Elmundo put together an impressive multimedia presentation following the Haiti earthquake. I originally found the project on Innovative Interactivity and was very, very impressed. Admittedly, I couldn’t understand most of the project (my spanish skills are a little rusty), but there were a lot of interesting interactive elements and a nice mix between factual context and emotional storytelling.

Death Perceptions

For most of us, death is occasional, peripheral. But for some, death is part of the job. And for a few, it is the job. This series examines death through the eyes of professionals who face it every day.

Project produced by The Columbus Dispatch.

Times of Crisis

Times of Crisis uses in-depth multimedia to chart the year of global upheaval following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. See how lives have changed as a divergent world embarks on a new era of historic uncertainty.

Reuters and MediaStorm produced this project collaboratively.

Still looking for more inspiration? Try some of these posts

Innovative Interactivity: Top 50 Multimedia Sites of 2009
MediaStorm: Projects Worth Watching
Multimedia Shooter: 9 Multimedia Projects You Must Experience