Is this the future of photojournalism? Fascinating multimedia feature by the New York Times: A Game of Shark and Minnow makes elaborate use of video, sounds, still photography, animated three-dimensional graphics, beautiful code, interactivity and — last but not least — precise and concise written text. Add it all together and you get a one-of-a-kind digital storytelling that’s hardly equaled by anything I’ve seen on the Net.

You have to see it to believe it. It’s the story of a forsaken ship in the South China Sea, manned by eight Filipino troops whose job is to keep China in check.

Scroll down the feature‘s pages and listen to the sound of the sea — or (chapter 4) the freshly caught fish in the basket and (chapter 7) the rain pouring into the ship’s laundry room through the ceiling, drenching everything. A rooster takes shelter in a dry corner.

Finally, on board a small plane, we speed down the bumpy, grass-covered runway and lift off, looking down on a ragtag island in the South China Sea.

The reader is virtually living the story. Photography comes alive.

Now that’s digital storytelling. Hopefully this new format proves to be an invigorating force in the field of photojournalism.