Junk News Junkie

For me, this article is the online news equivalent of a big, luscious English trifle.

Reading it was a lot like eating the dessert, with its multiple layers, colours and textures. With this article, there is just so much to see, and read, and watch, and learn, that I got cross-eyed within the first few minutes. But just like a decadent dessert, it is best savoured slowly and leisurely. Byte by byte.

Now, the amount of information presented in this article is astounding. Like many others, I’d been following the coverage of the BP oil spill since April. And in the beginning, no one seemed to have an accurate picture of just how bad the damage was. Now, in hindsight (if you can call it that), The New York Times has consolidated all the information from their coverage of the spill in a convenient ‘one-stop centre’.

The ‘front page’ of the site starts of with the most recent report, just to get readers up to date with the latest. Then it provides an overview of the explosion on April 20 – explaining the sequence of events and (poor) decision-making that has led to this ecological disaster. I especially like that clicking on the ‘Read More...’ link doesn’t navigate you away from the page.

There are so many links to click on here, so many links I want to click on. I spent a good portion of my morning just making my way through the labyrinth of news articles and slideshows and editorials and blogs.

But I have to say that my favourite was this.

This interactive graphic is amazing. Well, maybe not in a photo-realistic computer graphics way, but in the way the information was presented. It’s easy to read and when compiled the way it is, readers can easily comprehend the extent of the disaster. I feel like the page should be renamed "BP Oil Spill For Dummies".

The interactive graphic tracks the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including the extent of the spill in the ocean, where oil has made landfall, and the effects on wildlife. Clicking on the play icon (top left corner of the graphic) will take you through the 103 days in 37 seconds. The third tab, ‘Effects on Wildlife’ has more info on the 7,000 birds, sea turtles and dolphins that have been found dead or debilitated in the gulf since the oil spill began. The other tabs, ‘Efforts to Stop the Leak’ and ‘Investigating the Blowout’ get a bit technical and boring but still, the information is presented in a great way.

So bravo NYTimes.com for the great use of multimedia, with its clever interactive features and interesting infographics. You've almost made me forget I was craving blueberry trifle.