Does this story warrant a video?

A video I watched this afternoon on CNN.com enticed me with the following click inducement: "Drunk 4-year carried out of her school." Granted my choice was less than academic, I decided it could potentially be worth the 1:02 it took to watch the video. While the newsworthiness is debatable, it certainly proved to be a good lesson in filming. The sound quality was quite poor throughout the video; the interviews and nat sound were collected on an extremely windy day and it was almost painful to listen to the high pitched gusts of winds. Also, while the rumble of the ambulance made for interesting natural sound, in my opinion in remained too loud while the journalist narrated over it.

In regard to visuals, most were establishing shots of the school and paramedics outside the building. Probably for ethical reasons, no children were shown or interviewed and nor were any school faculty. This made for a visually redundant video, essentially showing the same scene setter from different angles.

I believe this is an appropriate example of the importance of critically evaluating the best method to convey a story. The fact that the click inducement was more compelling than the video itself suggests to me that it could have just as easily been covered through photographs or text.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/03/06/dnt.ok.girl.drunk.at.school.koco