Video Story: Breaking news

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25210011#%2325210011

I thought that this story was done pretty well considering that it was breaking news; however, I think there are a few things that could have been done better. The story is about a levee breaking in Gulfport Illinois and the flooding that it has caused. There is a reporter there live on the scene, standing in the middle of some of the floodwaters. I thought the beginning of the segment was good and it used effective visuals to tell the story along with what the reporter was saying, but it quickly deteriorated. When the reporter was describing the things behind and around him, he described very specific buildings and locations, using phrases such as “you’ll see”; however, the person behind the camera seemed confused as to what he was talking about, and did not get shots of any of the things the reporter was describing. This made it hard to follow this particular part of the story, and left me confused as to what I was seeing. I understand the difficulty of shooting breaking news, but the reporter was left alone on screen for a long period of time without any accompanying shots from different angles or perspectives. I think some different views of the flooding would have made for a more interesting and compelling story. If this were a text story I would want to know more specific information like how many people were injured or killed, how many thousands or millions of dollars in damage was done, and perhaps get more quotes from people affected by the flood. There was no interviews or soundbites from people the flood affected in the entire first half of the story. A print article about this story would hopefully be much more in depth.