The Soundslide Report. Innovative Journalism or Misplaced Works of Art?

Abstract

The audio slideshow – or soundslide report – represents a new format for journalistic reporting on online news sites. It is not very widely used, but it has certain discursive and aesthetic potentials indicating that it could contribute substantially to the ecology of jour nalistic genres. The article offers an illustration and discussion of these potentials, asking how the format communicates and how it affects journalism in general. Starting out with a close reading of a sample text and a discussion of the format’s position in a network of genres, the article concludes that the soundslide report belongs to a new wave of ”aesthetic journalism”, where journalism and art intersect.