Saturday, October 6, 2007

critique of a journalistic webvideo

I watched a 2:30 minute webvideo on MSNBC.com with ZeitGeist anchoring "the stories that can't be used". It featured three stories, one with anecdotal shots of pony-tailed judge and a guy shouting in support alongside the official announcing O.J.'s release, one telling Britney Spear's Fan calling for people to "leave her alone" and the other telling a domestic violence story. What I feel is that there's too much anchoring for a webvideo story that is supposed to be seizing the audience with exciting pictures. Most of the part the anchor was telling viewer what has happened, instead of letting the camera show them. The stories, significant or not, should be put in single videos, because multiple unrelated stories in one video will not only get people confused, but also has little effect in keeping them watching it. My opinion is that few people would follow through a series of unrelated stories (presumably only one or two interest them) on the web as they do on television. If the stories are rendered in text, they are less interesting, because there are nothing in particular in those stories that commands viewer attention without nice video and audio. However, "text only" story can work if these stories are rendered in just one or two lines. That will work even better than having an anchor talking all the time.

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