Weaving a Story on the Web
"A Clearwater Girl Is Burned, Not Broken," by John Barry of the St. Petersburg Times, is a fine example of a Web package that combines pictures, text and audio to tell a moving story.
When you open the story, your eyes are drawn to a photo of a scarred, yet smiling, 9-year-old Kiki Pressley stretching to touch her toes at Shriners Hospitals for Children. The photo conveys Kiki's indomitable spirit and invites you to begin the text.
Barry's first words, The little girl who walked through fire wants to show her pictures, draw you into his nicely constructed tale of Kiki's courage during and after a house fire that nearly killed her as she rushed to save a toddler cousin. Note how Barry maintains suspense by holding back Kiki's description of the fire until he nears the end of his text.
The audio slideshow lets you hear Kiki and her mother describe what's happened since the fire. Kiki's last sentence wraps up the story in three words: I'm still alive.
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article522017.ece