March 03, 2008
Motorcycle crash
If it bleeds it leads
After last night’s dinner conversation, I was still thinking about Michael’s motorcycle crash analogy. I realize his point wasn’t about the headline, but about the content of the video and reader’s desire to see the crash.
The question I ask is if the DMS had video of the crash, would you have posted it?
If photo had a picture of the crash, would it have run in the paper? Newspaper editors have always debated using sensational photos. Shouldn’t we be having those same conversations about videos?
The same question can be asked of humor videos. As David mentioned, people like YouTube because many of the videos are funny. Newspapers do the same thing with photos as well. We use funny pictures or pictures of pandas not because we care about the latest panda born in some zoo, but because readers like that kind of stuff.
We have to stop thinking that we’re better than the people who like YouTube and start thinking about ways to present the news in ways that appeal to them.
Comments
Good point. I am certainly not opposed to doing stuff that’s merely interesting. I just think we need to look for ways for video to complement our own storytelling. It has to be both. We can’t just post video or (use photos in print) that are merely interesting or funny. They have to be newsworthy, too. On some level.
By Michael Landauer, 03/03/08 at 10:15 am
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