Connecting text to visuals

A common mistake I see many journalists make is that they write a visual story without watching the visuals in front of them as they write. Too often, a video or slideshow story is not connected to the visuals. A good story is hooked to the visuals and audio. In broadcast, disconnected shots are referred to as wallpaper video, meaning that the story could be told without the visuals.

So that means that students or people should have the visuals in front of them when sitting down to write. If you do not have video to address a specific aspect of a story, then delete that aspect or keep it short. If someone says, “Look over there” on camera, you can incorporate that chunk of audio into your writing.

For example, “Look over there” (audio). Alice Thompson watches a humming bird while eating dinner (narration). And we should see a visual of her watching the bird.

Think about adding pauses, adding sound, and really think about your visuals when writing. Visualizing is a part of visual writing and adding too much text can sometimes drown your story. The National Press Photographers Association has some nice examples of visual writing.

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