Multimedia Storytelling in Online Journalism: Analysing Multimedia Use on the Websites TheGuardian.com, TheNationalnews.com, USAToday.com, and Stuff.co.nz

The digital transformation of journalism—from text-heavy to multimedia-reliant—has changed storytelling approaches, with multimedia integration becoming central to online news formats. Incorporating multimedia elements such as photographs, videos, and photo galleries has been shown to significantly enhance audience engagement in online journalism. The growing capacity for multimedia integration has expanded the possibilities for digital storytelling, allowing for more interactive and immersive news experiences. Effective multimedia implementation in online journalism, incorporating elements such as photographs, videos, and photo galleries, enhances audience engagement. A news website’s capacity for multimedia integration has created new opportunities for storytelling, enabling more interactive news presentation. This study examines multimedia implementation patterns across four major international news websites, TheGuardian.com (UK), TheNationalnews.com (UAE), USAToday.com (USA), and Stuff.co.nz (New Zealand), analysing 280 articles published between February and April 2023. The findings reveal significant variations in multimedia integration strategies across different content types, geographic focuses, and thematic areas. The findings indicate that despite technological capabilities, multimedia integration remains uneven across platforms and content categories. The findings show differences in how multimedia is used, depending on the type of content, geographic focus, and subject matter. Even with the technology readily available, the level of multimedia integration still varies widely across platforms and content categories. Local news receives more multimedia treatment than foreign news, while feature articles demonstrate higher multimedia density than standard news content.