picking the right media for a story

By Paul Grabowicz   ·   Updated Jun 17, 2013   ·   Print Print

Video

Here are the types of stories or aspects of stories that lend themselves to video:

Action - natural disasters, sporting events, dance performances, etc. Examples:

Central place in a story – video takes you there and gives you a sense of what a place is like.

Central characters in a story – video lets you see and hear them and how they behave.  Especially use video if they’re interesting or animated.

Drama - not so much an emotional moment, but a story that’s part of larger drama. Examples:

Humor - think about the most popular videos on YouTube. Examples:

Kids - especially if there's a group of them interacting. Examples:

Animals - People love to see how animals act. Examples:

Crimes and crime scenes - it almost doesn't matter how boring the crime scene is or how bad the video is, many people will want to watch it

Food - video engages the senses. So use video for food preparation or eating, not necessarily for recipes (recipes might be text with a video to illustrate how to prepare the food)

How things work or how to do something - video is good for showing simple processes, such as things with moving parts.

Raw Video - people really like raw video that provides an unfiltered look of what happened, especially on a breaking news story.

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Filed under: Reporting