Using Short-Form Video in the Multimedia Journalism Classroom (2014)

Fall 2014, Teaching*More adults are watching news video, and at the same time online attention spans are shrinking. It's no wonder several major news outlets have started experimenting with Instagram, Vine and Tout videos. The video social networks have tight time limits-15 seconds for Instagram and Tout, and six seconds for Vine. The demand for short videos creates a challenge for journalists to be efficient with images, words and their audience's time.That direct and punchy storytelling is now a requirement of journalism graduates. That's why I've started having my students dissect, evaluate and emulate good video blurbs from these social media platforms.Today 36 percent of U.S. adults watch news videos-up from 26 percent in 2007, according to 2014 figures from the Pew Research Journalism Prd\ec\.. When you look at just smartphone owners, or just younger respondents, the numbers were higher.More than half-53 percent-of smartphone owners reported watching online news videos in the survey. Forty-eight percent of respondents ages 18-29 and 49 percent of respondents ages 30-49 said they watched online news video.Much of the research on audience attention spans comes from online marketing companies, which help companies determine if their advertisements will get watched in online videos. Studies from TubeMogul, ComScore and Visible Measures have all pointed to shorter video attention spans. The overall message: the longer a video runs, the fewer people are watching.The IndustryWith those facts in mind, students in my Multimedia Journalism course experimented last semester with short-form mobile video using Instagram. The first step was to evaluate what others were doing. Together we found and followed several news outlets on Instagram.Dozens of news outlets use Instagram, but not all have ventured into video content.Some of the players in the video arena include traditional broadcast outlets, such as CBS News and CNN. Others are established print or online media outlets, such as F orbes and the Washington Pos\.. And there are newcomers, such as NowThisNews, a video aggregation news site that targets young viewers.As the 15-second video format is still evolving, we found several variations on how outlets use video.* Raw footage: Some news outlets are using raw video footage alone to augment a story. An example is a short cell-phone video of soccer fans cheering after a goal.* Video segments: Outlets like CBS This Morning and CBS Evening News often run 15-second segments of their on-air broadcasts, highlighting an important quote from an interview subject or teasing an item to be aired later that day.* Text narration: BBC's Instafax and NowThis News have mastered the art of quick videos that use short text narration and music to move the viewer through the B-roll clips.* Voice-over narration: Other edited videos include B-roll clips with an interview voice over, similar to the text narration but without any text.The take-awaysWhile the different approaches work well for different media and different situations, we discussed some common factors that journalists should keep in mind when using short mobile videos. …