Online video is different from broadcast. Structure. Part 2.

Broadcast journalism students learn early on that there are three basic ways to structure broadcast stories: 1) Voice-over (VO): anchor narration under video, 2) Voice-over with Sound-on-tape (VO/SOT): anchor narration under video accompanied with an interview, and 3) Reporter Package: reporter narration under video accompanied with several interviews.

However, broadcast story structures do not work well in the online information world because powerful visuals do not work well with heavy narration. When I taught broadcast news in the past, I told my students that if you have important information to convey to the audience, you should use a wide shot or detached visuals because people can not cognitively handle interesting visuals coupled with important factual information. As I said in the last post, you should only use visuals when warranted.

Thus, instead of the narrated VO which runs :15-:25 in length, you should incorporate edited shots without narration. Here is a simple example.

Instead of the narrated VO/SOT with interviews which runs :25-:45 in length, you could chunk up your interviews and accompany them with text. Here is an example.

The reporter package, which traditionally ran from 1:15-2:00, is now more raw, relying more on visuals and sound, rather than narration. The ideal length online is 1:15-4:00 dependent upon the available visuals and characters. One of my favorite video stories is more of what you would expect to see in a traditional broadcast program and my other favorite breaks many shooting rules, but is still a great story.

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