The Freedom Flights database is the only public record of refugees that fled to the United States during the Cuban Revolution.
This week, as we collected our audio and put together a final structure of our One @ Marquette projects, Professor Herbert Lowe asked us to find something exceptional about our beat websites. At first I wanted to write about El Nuevo Herald, The Miami Herald's Spanish-language companion. I thought it was pretty unique for a newspaper in the United States to have such close ties to a newspaper that's published in Spanish and reports on issues in Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia. But Professor Lowe wanted us to write about "something screaming digital journalism," and El Nuevo Herald is just a sister newspaper to The Miami Herald, and while I think that's something to be commended, it doesn't quite "scream" digital journalism to me.
I looked around The Miami Herald's website a little more and was surprised but pleased to find a special page dedicated to The Herald's 10-part series on the Cuban Revolution; it seems to have been posted in late 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Revolution. The producers went so far as to create an interactive graphic which visitors can use to navigate through the different parts of the series: 50 Years: Then and Now, The Freedom Flights, The Freedom Tower, "Plantadas," Nostalgia (El Encanto), Society (Race-based clubs), Revolution Anniversary, The U.S. Reaction, Yanqui Comandante, and The Insider. By clicking on the tabs, visitors can read a description of that particular aspect of the project and click on links to relevant articles and multimedia elements like photo galleries and videos.
One of the most prominent aspects of the project is the documentation of Cuban refugees' flights to the United States, referred to as the Freedom Flights. The U.S. government sponsored the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, who entered the country through the Freedom Tower in Miami. Visitors to the page who took part in the Freedom Flights are encouraged to share their stories and videos, and The Herald has compiled a number of video packages profiling individual refugees. The project creators did an excellent job of combining hard news and feature stories with multimedia to take a look at how the Cuban revolution has shaped Cuban and American societies.
What impressed me most about this project was the Freedom Flights database, the only public record of the resettlement program. Visitors can type in the name of a friend or family member who fled from Cuba to the U.S. in the Freedom Flights and see what date he or she arrived. This is such a great way for people to connect with their roots and learn a little about their personal history and the history of our nation.
I looked around The Miami Herald's website a little more and was surprised but pleased to find a special page dedicated to The Herald's 10-part series on the Cuban Revolution; it seems to have been posted in late 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Revolution. The producers went so far as to create an interactive graphic which visitors can use to navigate through the different parts of the series: 50 Years: Then and Now, The Freedom Flights, The Freedom Tower, "Plantadas," Nostalgia (El Encanto), Society (Race-based clubs), Revolution Anniversary, The U.S. Reaction, Yanqui Comandante, and The Insider. By clicking on the tabs, visitors can read a description of that particular aspect of the project and click on links to relevant articles and multimedia elements like photo galleries and videos.
One of the most prominent aspects of the project is the documentation of Cuban refugees' flights to the United States, referred to as the Freedom Flights. The U.S. government sponsored the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, who entered the country through the Freedom Tower in Miami. Visitors to the page who took part in the Freedom Flights are encouraged to share their stories and videos, and The Herald has compiled a number of video packages profiling individual refugees. The project creators did an excellent job of combining hard news and feature stories with multimedia to take a look at how the Cuban revolution has shaped Cuban and American societies.
What impressed me most about this project was the Freedom Flights database, the only public record of the resettlement program. Visitors can type in the name of a friend or family member who fled from Cuba to the U.S. in the Freedom Flights and see what date he or she arrived. This is such a great way for people to connect with their roots and learn a little about their personal history and the history of our nation.
RSS Feed