Four Lives Two Worlds is a multimedia project built around the slaying of four illegal immigrants in Ohio, then tracing their lives through Ohio back to their home in Mexico and the impact their deaths had on the families there. It is part of a series about immigration in Ohio. The video, audio and photos used in the project all seem to support the print story by Eileen Kelley. Kelley’s text story is thorough and well executed. It covers all the angles of the story and leaves the audience wanting to know more. The rest of the package follows the outline set up in the text story as well as linking back to the story and using blocks of text to accompany graphics and photographs.

The piece is introduced with spot news photos of the police scene. Then viewer is taken to the title page where there are five distinct sections along a navigation bar at the top of the page. This navigation is available on every page. Personally I like the color scheme (from the Mexican flag) and radio buttons but my class thought they were outdated. The storytelling is linear and clear and progresses logically through the five sections.

The first section introduces each victim with a mugshot, family photos and a short video made in their home town Villa de Ramos in Mexico. This is more than enough personal information about the men to give the reader a sense of connection with the deceased, and makes the reader want to know more about their story. The biggest problem here is the text used is just jpegs of the print story and is not searchable or interactive.

The second section features an interactive map with the print story applied to it. It has a good amount of information, I would have liked to see some type of animation marking their route to Ohio.

The third section is about why immigrants move to Ohio. It includes a video with an interview of a worker at the church who gives his opinion about why the men were killed. This information makes the storytelling feel like an investigation about the murders. There are not enough details about the murder or any input from law enforcement or police investigating the case. The natural audio from the church is very good. Also, it did not show other immigrants in similar situations who were killed at home or at work.

The fourth and fifth sections are based on a 10 day trip Eileen Kelley and photographer/videographer Carrie Cochran took to Villa de Ramos. Very emotional and moving content in the videos with the family and visually interesting documentation of the funeral. There may be too much content for anyone to be expected to view here and some of the audio has flaws in its recording, like pops and unintended noise. The storytelling succeeds with the interview with a family member talking broadly about the troubles facing immigrants and how that affects the home communities in Mexico makes a good conclusion for the piece. The audio of the singing from the funeral procession is great.

There are opportunities for the public to make comments but I think I was the only person who did. There was also the opportunity to make donations to the families of the victims.

There are nine people credited for the project.