The online news audience expects online news stories to be:
• “Authentic” (not polished)
• Personal (not strictly journalistic)
• In non-traditional formats
• Interactive - easily changed, added to, shared and linked to other platforms
The question is: how do we express those audience expectations when we are working with our own images and text?
The traditional rules of television journalism don’t necessarily work on the web. Just consider the physical experience: watching streaming video in a small window on a computer, an iPod or a mobile device is, for the viewer, physically very different than seeing the same images on a television screen.
It’s smaller, it might be held in the hand and often the resolution isn't great. The viewer is guaranteed to be impatient, and ready to click away if the video gets boring or irrelevant. The different physical experience suggests the most effective visual storytelling methods for the web will be different, as well.
For example, while television news generally avoids talking heads, these can be effective on small screens; the same goes for close-ups, especially human details such as faces, hands, clothing, and “iconic” (instantly recognizable) objects such as signs and symbols.
Fast edits are not always essential; powerful, iconic images probably are. And pay attention to sound. Consider that compelling audio and iconic sound fits perfectly with mobile devices; after all, that’s what telephones and iPods were designed for originally.
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