#MediaMonday: Vertical News
Good Morning Everyone,
As we round out the final days of our brand new STN Pop-Up Challenge #4: TikTok Challenge, I hope you have considered how this vertical storytelling form can find a way into your program. While many of us have more of a multimedia program, I understand that some of our programs are strictly news. As vertical video can lend itself to a more informal style of video content, there are some entities that took this form to heart and make vertical video news content.
Therefore, the topic of today's email is: Vertical News
In 2017, the BBC made a controversial move on their mobile platform and started publishing video that was entirely vertical (meaning that, if the user flipped the phone into landscape-mode, the video would crop to remain vertical). They began with a "Video of the Day" format and in just a short amount of time, they saw their percentages of video viewership jump nearly 30%. Further, they found that hose who watch vertical video typically visit three times more frequently than those who don’t. Since the BBC remains a world-leader in news gathering, this marks an important shift in news consumption.
Here is the video that they used to launch the service: https://youtu.be/BhsQI9vdopY
The BBC found that nearly 60% of their audience comes to them via a mobile platform. My question to all of us is: How are you meeting the needs of this same audience with your program's content?
I, for one, have been deeply hesitant to move to creating news content vertically for any social media outlet but in the midst of all of these discussions, I keep asking myself, why? Since there is an audience there that wants a specific type of content, why have I been fighting the change? In fact, audiences were outraged by the switch from the BBC, marking it as a gimmick. However, that in itself seems laughable now, considering that vertical format seems so natural to a modern mobile audience.
My challenge to you (and myself) this week is this: Ask Yourself How Vertical Video Fits Your Program.
It is not a question of "if" but "how" does it fit. Your students and their peers all use mobile platforms in a unique way and, as we are supposed to be preparing our students to be media producers of the future, are we actually doing that? Are we actually preparing students to enter the fields that we teach? If we believe that we are, does that preparation include vertical video in some way?
This is convicting to me because I currently teach 0% vertical video. Thus far, I've been opposed to it, marking it as a trend format that will soon pass. However, as I have worked through these emails and done the research on the lessons, I have to say that my intro media classes are about to get a vertical video assignment. I'm going to assign it, support it and see what happens. I'm willing to take the risk; are you?
How do you use vertical video? Let us know in the listserv!
Talk to you soon,
Josh Cantrell
STN Education Coordinator
Central High School-Springfield, MO.
josh@studenttelevision.com