Everyone and everything in public media is online these days.

Journalism has certainly figured out that that’s where one pillar of success lays. Unfortunately, public broadcasting seems largely satisfied with using sound slideshows as the definition of an online presence.

Some slide shows are great and give you just enough to make you hunger for more, like what WNYC's The Takeaway did at July's UNITY convention for journalists of color. Others are just nice uses of the slideshow technology that provide the audience with little. NPR's Tell Me More gave a nice and stylish one; it celebrated the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; that was nice. It had style and it provided some insight and context for the listener.

Audio slide shows have their places and uses, but thorough, dynamic and funky web presences provide the audience, the listener with more.

Please look at PBS’ American Masters (AM) and American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith's web presences as bench marks for what can be done on the web. This is what AM gave us for Marvin Gaye. This is what Speaking of Faith gave us to understand Muslims better

One of the thoughts or rationales for web content is marked by the frustration or exasperation that used to vex producers: darn it – if only we had a perfect world where the rest of this conversation could be included.

Speaking of Faith has oodles of extra content - Oodles is a technical term, right? They provide the rough cut of that week's conversation; to outside web sites; provide an annotated transcript or description of the many elements that go into each program; refer you to books for further reading. It's clear that their web producer, Trent Gilliss, is very talented; the webbys and other awards that he and the show have earned confirm this.

A website while useful, typically give you information: text, images, content, but rarely context, interpretation that advances the original material. These shows or series have each invested in having a presence on the web; each one is a whole production.

American Masters provides a feature essay, the masters' career timelines, the filmmaker interviews, links to more footage. In this social-networking-preoccupied world, there is also a link to the series' Facebook.com group page.

It can be a marvel to know how much work goes into American Masters' and Speaking of Faith's web presences. A web presence gives you something; it can transport you. These presences provide depth and background. There are probably many people who are thrilled or even awed when they arrive at either of these sites. The more thoughtful and perceptive visitor probably feels obligated to notice: "holy crap, they put a lot of work into this. This probably required a whole team to bring this off."

I remember that one talented web producer said that you need to focus on the user experience. Exploit the technology. Experiment. It's clear that the programs that will do better than the others will have a strong presence on the web and a philosophy about advancing their shows and segments in innovative, artistic and unconventional ways.