Comm 271 Exam 2
Rolling Through Rio
A Penn State student (Brett Gravatt) has trouble navigating through Rio because he is physically impaired. He finds it tough to use his wheelchair on the infrastructure in Rio because conditions are bad. This video was produced by Shannon Ryan (Penn State Student) via the AP
Know where the audience is and what they are seeing. To do this you need to understand algorithms and user experience (UX)
Algorithms- FB, twitter, how information is shared • Ex: how annoying auto-play was on smartphones, now videos are muted until the tap • A response to consumer behavior reading on smartphones UX: important that the experience you're giving your audience is seamless, no stalling. One of the things that kills videos the most is giant ads • Think about the convenience for readers/ viewers
The Evolution of Video From calories to contributions: The Washington Post
David Farhenthold, investigating Trump, found he was making illegal business deals, to explain Trump's claims that he donates to charities • Only a few thousand watched it live, but it's still out there, so 57k have watched it now • 6 million dollars for Veterans • What Olympians eat in a day • Differing calories for each athlete • No dialogue, just music • Two videos were very different. First was two guys talking about a story being reported. The second had no dialogue, but had music instead.
Elements of the video: "It Takes A Village To Make An Interactive Documentary"
Fast-action photography After FX (animation program) separate image into sections Animated gifs Gave an outlet for people who donated to post pictures of them in the T-shirts. Let the readers be a part of the end product Created 5 short videos to tell a story -cotton, machines, people, boxes, you Ultimately learned that getting feedback from people helped them build a better product. Won a Peabody and online journalism award changed the way journalists thought about doing projects. "Just because you do a great project doesn't mean your audience is going to keep coming back to you" Learned you have to work with the audience. [Website stickiness is super important]
Going Live
Mustafa Hussein: Ferguson, Missouri - $5,000 cameras in 2014 to go live, massive production Penn State Students go live in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro • Periscope • Facebook Live- connection issues, need to be friends
Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt Video
Story behind how our clothes are made: INTRO • Nothing ordinary about the world where a t-shirt comes from • Follow shirt around the world until it gets made • Cotton: one farmer, a shocking number of t-shirts • Alex Bloomberg (reporter) • Question of the project: Are people being helped or hurt by making our clothes?
What is the Washington Post doing now?
Take Sunday content and post it on Thursday and Friday so that people actually see it • War Brides (traditional): untold stories of Japanese war brides. The trailer shown works with or without the volume, • How to protect yourself from getting hacked by Yahoo (new): Again, no difference when sound is turned off because of the subtitles. If you look at the story, most of the information is also in the video, • What differences do these videos have if the sound is there or not? Why do we use text in videos?- people aren't always listening, why not? Mobile devices without headphones in public places
The Innovation Report
To be digital success, the legacy product can't be the priority, even if it makes more money • Digital native companies are taking customers and revenue from legacy news organizations by producing a more accessibly product, even tho it may be of lower quality. The economic pressure is called disruption. — Buzzfeed would steal NY Times stories then publish and get more viewers. • Occasional success, even if it wins tons of awards, isn't enough. • Audiences aren't seeking out the news, publications need to engage viewers • Product innovation requires journalists and technologists to work side by-side • Building audience requires marketers and journalists to work side by-side -NPR was doing this the whole time and therefore successful
Exploring uncharted territory:
Virtual Reality- NYT is a huge investor Moving to extremes: polarization of story styles
Branded content is
a form of advertising that uses the generating of content as a way to promote the particular brand which funds the content's production.
Breaking news faces the greatest challenge for monetization because
advertisers may not want to be associated may not want to be associated with potentially distasteful content
Facebook Live works best when:
audiences have a clear incentive to be engaged, rather than simply watching passively.
• Scale: distributed content and social media
o Facebook: 72% of adult interest users/62% of entire adult population o Pinterest: 31% of adult interest users/26% of entire adult population o Instagram: 28% of adult interest users/24% of entire adult population o LinkedIn: 25% of adult internet users/22% of entire adult population o Twitter: 23% of all internet users/20% of entire adult population o Snapchat: Total Snapchat users = 150 million (57m in the US, 15m>Twitter) 70+% of millennials and 60% of Americans between the age of 13 and 38
• Found on the Sidewalk
o New York Times journalist finds old photo samples on the ground o Starts digging for clues with audience o Does everything on Facebook Live (interviews nephew) o Continues hunt to learn more why these were left on the street § Using help from viewers and real time comments o Audience engaged, wanted to see the outcome § More emotionally involved once they were engaged. The continued to be invested in solving mystery • Production value o Facebook notification sound • Have people read comments • High craftsmanship o Editing tight o B-roll good
• Elisabeth Rosenthal: Medical Records/Harassment
o Story only exists on Facebook Live o Accompanies subject to the police station o Real Time Comments § Hospital realizes the New York Times is covering a story involving them § By the time they get to the police station, all charges were dropped and hospital releases a public statement
Version used on Facebook (new) is used as a teaser of what the story is about
§ A link is used to drive you back to The Washington Post's site § Meant to be viewed with mobile device • There isn't even audio at the beginning. They're giving you time to touch it, which is the same time the audio starts. o Giving you time to engage with that video audio so you get the maximum response out of it o Testing people's behavior. They iterated to adapt their video to the behavior seen on Facebook § What we're seeing on the Facebook version is "distributed content"
o Take advantage of push alerts
§ If you like a page, you'll get push alerts § Pushing this kind of content (distributed) to the audience
o Stories, or versions of stories, may exist only on certain platforms
§ Since audience doesn't differentiate between platforms, they can't find stories, which creates a disconnect, making it more difficult to share
All stories have an arc of audience needs and expectations, just like in print, radio, TV:
• Accuracy • Speed • Content • Clarity • Craftsmanship
Copyright
• Antonella and another PSU student have cameras that are shooting 10 frames per second • NBC is very strict with their copyright laws, so they are not allowed to take video, so instead they are going to make a stop motion video • NBC has been very strict about protecting their rights, so they have to be very careful not to lose their credentials • Audio is allowed to be recorded
How is Facebook live different from covering Ferguson in 2014?
• Anyone with a smartphone can go live #blacklivesmatter • Live (moderated) interactive conversation with viewers • It can be monetized (the rules are changing on social media) - someone can sponsor FB live • Social media is a revenue tool
Kick-starter
• Asking an audience to give you money to create a product (that has not been created yet). Give them something in return. It's like crowd fundraising. • Wanted to raise $55,000, ended up making $506,000 • Video shows how you weave cotton almost like a "cotton music video" • It's about the people, not the t-shirts • Very good story telling, NY Times called it ideal reporting
NowThisNews
• Audience wants to wake up and find out what is going on o Records story as Facebook Live event and delivers a notification when the video is posted § Only exists when it is still relevant (approx. 3 hours) • Story Example: "Michele Obama gave George W. Bush a Big Hug!" o Real Time Comments § It's not Facebook Live, which is what allows her to get the production value of placing the video up in the corner and rolling into tape o Demonstrates bi-partisanship o Newscast is made for our age group § "Talking about her dad" o Meant to simulate a conversation through Facetime even though a high quality video
Three reasons cotton is king: STORY (technology) CH 1:
• Cotton farm • Mississippi Delta • Today we use technology, used to use slave labor • America exports more cotton than anywhere in entire world • Genes from bacteria are added to the cotton • Over 90% of American cotton is genetically modified, wasn't like that 20 years ago • Cotton fields have almost tripled • 1 cotton farm= 9 million t-shirts, 1 year • Showed differences between mechanical and human labor • Highlights on race and economic disparity
Vice News
• Does short documentaries with the reporter present in the film • Information Starved viewers make their money through HBO • Irony in that an internet startup is making its money through Cable TV • Product placement, branded content helps generate revenue
Video where the audience is: Distributed Content
• Explanation: When you are taking the story then publishing it where people are instead of trying to bring people from where they are to your site • Versions of stories only exist on certain platforms o Originally unpopular because you couldn't monetize anything on social media. That's changing. • Using Distributed Content Now o Go to where the audience is (like Snapchat) § Engage with them, § Brand yourself there, monetize it • The audience doesn't differentiate between platforms (site vs. Facebook). That's the branding that goes with it. • They're trying to go where the audience is, engage them where they are, and establish their brand, and hopefully monetize it.
Miracle on the Hudson: A Marriott Story (CNN)
• Four survivors relive the crash landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River
Penn State Alumns in the Paralympics
• Freshman Emma participating in Shot Put in the Paralympics • Shawn Morelli is a track cyclist- won the first gold of the paralympics (1999 PSU graduate)
Writers: Nicole and Garrett
• Garrett's first story was about the medal count; focusing on how China is dominating • He took a close look at why China's doing so well, and hones in on this idea of what makes a country successful at the Olympics. • Nicole is turning her written piece into a visual story. • Her story is about volunteers at the Olympics, and how Brazilian fans are cheering for every country
Listen to the audience and adapt (iterate or pivot)
• Iterate- small rapid changes • Pivot- large change
Monetizing Social Media
• Live streams can be sponsored • Twitter allows pre-roll ads on video • Facebook and Snapchat allows branded content in feeds
Know where the audience is and what they are seeing. Results?
• More text on video • More vertical video- snap-chat videos, many have their phones on auto-lock • More video • And more platform specific content
CH 3: Workers In Bangladesh Are Getting A Raise
• People in Columbia are getting paid more to produce t-shirts than those in Bangladesh • The tip is most important part of t-shirt; it gives it its look • There are two versions of the t-shirt because one is for men (normal) and one is for women (V-neck, harder to make) • Jasmine (Bangladesh) has no life other than the factory and gets paid little ($80/month just like 4 million others); has always worked in garment industry • Doris (Columbia) has time and money for her family, gets paid 4x more than Jasmine and has time for a side-job in pastry business; Doris wants to leave garment industry • Jasmine finding a husband cost her a dowry; she's working to extract her family from that debt • Doris can support herself and her mother • Are the t-shirts helping them or taking advantage of them? • The deaths of workers are similar to those in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • Women like Jasmine and Doris who work long hours in difficult conditions dream of better lives for their families • Colombia has more advanced industry than Bangladesh (their countries cause differences between the girls)
CH. 4: How To Send A Shirt Around The World For Pennies: Containers
• Send our shirts around the world • Fast-paced, upbeat music, "our container" • Containers make the t-shirts possible b/c more efficient • Ship leaves Colombia and goes to Miami then travels north through trains and trucks • Travel is affordable b/c of shipping container; transportation costs 7 cents and raw materials are only 60 cents • Containers are "helpful heroes" of the t-shirt economy
Facebook Live: Notes
• Some of the students are shooting with cannon and Nikon cameras. • There are only 52 credited journalists covering the Paralympics • Not much exposure for these games due to limited coverage • There are 13 total psu students there • Some struggled with the language barrier in Rio • Tatiana McFadden is a very popular athlete (wheelchair racer) • Focused on the use of still photos • Have not really seen many mosquitos which is huge considering that the media has sensationalized Zika in Rio.
The Innovation Challenge: Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt
• Started out with a successful kick-starter campaign. -Wanted to raise $50,000 but made $590,807 in 14 days • Video -Intro so people know what the video is about -Asked people what they wanted to know and made the video based off of that -Told the story that answered the questions of the people
Three reasons cotton is king: STORY (machines) CH 2:
• Takes place in Bangladesh • Soft, comfortable, high tech • Production, circular knitting machine, washed, dried= our fabric • Does not take many people to actually produce cotton ourselves, but now machines are used • Changes speed of video and use upbeat music • Adds production value by making it look like the cotton is dancing • Introduces machines like they are subjects/people
Spotlight on Tatyana McFadden
• Tatyana is the face of the Paralympic USA team • She has a lot of sponsors • In 2013, she won all four major marathons, London, NY, Chicago, and Boston
Telling the story of Paralympic blind soccer 5-a-side
• Using high speed still photos to get around not having the rights to use NBC's video footage • Everyone is blindfolded except referee and goalie • Follow the sound of the ball • Shot 6000 pictures in two games, picked out the best sequences. Students built video out of it.
Now This:
• Video blog on Facebook and YouTube • Brooklyn Guys • All of the information people were looking for • Used B-Roll and background video combined • 80% of viewers are viewing without sound • Geared towards time starved people
How is video changing at the Washington Post?
• Washington Post a leader in this area • Photographers and TV partners (washingtonpost.com) • At first, they wouldn't put any video on the internet until after the broadcast so as not to cut into the broadcast audience, but this failed • Changed photographers to videographers- they said no press conferences, something more interesting! • Launched into short documentary films every month • Successful with multimedia, did not match what the audience expected or wanted to find Does what traditional, documentary style is supposed to do § Wets your appetite to read the story and introduces the characters § Includes dialogue so you can actually hear the people that you're seeing, helps develop a relationship with them § Only text is transitional
Fundamental Changes and Trends
• With the emergence of digital media there have been three fundamental changes to the news ecosystem • Access-Storytellers have the same tools and the same opportunity to produce content and access audiences local, national, and internationally, • Engagement- Our audiences are inundated with information, so we need to make sure our content stand out from the noise • On demand- Our audiences want content when it is convenient for them to consume it, not when it is convenient to produce it
