…otherwise I will be hanging my head in shame.
This was dug up by Paul Bradshaw on his Online Journalism Blog and is the 60-second update from the Reading Evening Post:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0st6x-vrW5M&rel=1]
[Edit: Is it just me or can you hear a female voice saying “lovely jubbley” at the end of the piece?!]
And it seems the crazy transitions and cutting your reporters’ off before they’ve finished are both techniques employed elsewhere on their site:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsi-DqKH4I&rel=1]
I don’t blame the journos though (although someone has terrible taste in music and graphics). This smacks of poor training. Notice that the script sounds like it was written for print, not for video.
I hate the way that some people just expect that because you write the news you’re also going to be happy with and capable of presenting it on camera. It’s not true. Personally I’m skin-crawling-ly uncomfortable infront of a lens. I realise it’s something I will have to get used to and, when the inevitable comes, I hope, at the very least, I will have been given the right training to help me do it.
The cross platform world does imply that producers need to get used to producing for each and every platform, but specialism is equally become more predoimant in digital content land, and I don’t think you should fear the day you’re editing both the Post and presenting East Midlands Today! These awful experiments of print-goes-video, I hope, will remain just a fad, and media corps wanting to capitalise on both, will need to invest in fresh expertise in both. As Walt Disney said, ‘have your style and keep your style all our life’. (or ‘stick to what you know’!)
I see they’ve pulled the videos…
Apparently, your criticisms hit home.
Hi Adam,
That was really odd – they disappeared for a bit… now they’re back… hmmm…
This is something I’ve been going on about for ages – just because you’ve got the capability to do video doesn’t mean you should. Something as laughably bad as that just serves to damage the brand.
The sad thing is it wouldn’t take much in the way of training (or even recognising the obvious, such as don’t crash your credits over your newsreader) to make it at least passable.
I was thinking of what sort of video I’d like to see from journalists and I think this obsession with the Short Quick Soundbite stuff is misplaced. What’d be really interesting would be to have a journalist who really knows he subject sitting down in front of the camera and chatting about it in a relaxed, informal way. No urgency, no bullet points, just their personal take on the issue including some peripheral stuff and speculation they find interesting. Let them ramble for 5-10 minutes. Assuming they actually have something interesting to say that should be really useful and quite unique.
(As usual is all boils down to individuals…)
@Pete Ashton – couldn’t agree with you more.
When you are working with such a small budget and so few resources as these videos imply are the case you need to find creative and alternative niches that are going to draw interest. A producer/editor with an ounce of ability would be helpful too. The cheesy and uninspiring graphics in these just add to and highlight the poor structure. The weather report with degrees appearing in the journalists hands has to be the most cringe-worthy presentation of graphics I have seen since word art.