Multimedia Document Analysis Activity
What is the “Cloud”?, Joanna Stern/ABC News
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Definition Using Video Animation

In technical communication, definitions are instrumental in clearly describing new developments or discoveries. They also allow specialists to effectively communicate information in their fields to audiences who are less familiar with those fields.

Definitions often appear in written form within the context of a larger document. For example, a human resources director who is writing a proposal advocating that the company to adopt a telecommuting policy might include a sentence in his introduction that defines precisely what he means by “telecommuting.” Definitions can be as brief as a parenthetical aside within a sentence or as long as several paragraphs. Longer written definitions, called extended definitions, often include graphics. Technical communicators can also take advantage of video to combine visuals of any kind with spoken explanations of the concepts they wish to define.

ABC News Digital produced this video on cloud computing. After watching the video, answer the questions below and submit your response.

Used by permission of ABC News.

1 of 5

Describe the audience ABC appears to be targeting with this video. What do audience members already know about online file storage? What do they not know? List specific terms or concepts the speaker mentions in the course of the video, noting whether she takes the time to define them for viewers.

2 of 5

How does the tone of the video take its audience into consideration? Discuss the level of formality conveyed through various elements of the video, such as the music, the animations, and the speaker’s presence and word choice. What do these choices suggest about ABC’s assumptions about its audience’s attitude toward the subject matter, and how does the tone address that attitude?

3 of 5

The main purpose of this video is to provide its audience with a definition of the cloud. Do you think ABC had any related, additional purposes in creating the video, in terms of what it could do for its audience? Think about the information the audience takes away from the video and what the audience might do with that knowledge.

4 of 5

Search the Internet for a written definition of the cloud and paste it into the text box below. Did you find this definition more helpful than ABC’s video, or less helpful? Or, did the two definitions complement each other in some way? In what ways, if any, did the visual components used in the video aid you in understanding cloud computing? In what ways, if any, did they make the concept more difficult to understand?

5 of 5

Technical communicators employ a variety of techniques to create extended definitions. Which of the techniques discussed on pp. 000–000 in Ch. 20 does the video use? Be sure to point to specific examples from the video for each technique you list. Are there other techniques ABC could have considered using in the video to make it even more effective? If so, which ones?