We Are Creating A Social Media Video Channel For The Environment
BEFORE YOU EVEN START, PLEASE, VISIT OUR VIDEO BY COPYING THIS WEBLINK: http://bit.ly/1ToYgcL
“Your mistake,” she said, “is to assume that this is journalism.”
That was how a woman from California answered my comment about a video published by NowThis on their Facebook channel. The video in question presents a lovely story that takes place on Brazil’s southeast coast, where a man, named Joao Pereira de Souza, is visited every year by a penguin he saved in 2011. The bird appeared in Joao’s backyard, at Ilha Grande (Big Island, in Portuguese), in Rio de Janeiro state, covered in oil. Joao cleaned Dindin’s (the visitor received a nickname) feathers and fed him. The penguin returned to the ocean after a few months.
Here is a shot screen of the video and the link to the video:
What matters is not who was right or wrong: I’ve seen a lot of much better pieces from NowThis (a project that is a reference to me) and I do think that, in a broader sense, my comment is not that relevant. What really matters here is that a news consumer on social media perceived the video as entertainment, not Journalism. And before you argue that NowThis doesn’t only do Journalism, it is worth remembering their own motto: “We Bring The News To Your Social Feed.”
OK, I know: This is not the first time this kind of blurred line between news and entertainment comes across and certainly will not be the last. However, that seems to be a good prompt for a discussion: Can short videos on social media be effectively used to provide relevant information about environmental issues? Is it worth trying? I think it is and I would also include science on the menu.
We prototyped. It works. Let me tell you more about it.
I am longform journalist. I am a coauthor of five books about environmental issues in Brazil. In 2004, my first job was as a reporter for a remarkable environmental Brazilian magazine called TERRA (Earth, in Portuguese). The monthly publication presented Brazil to Brazilians in the 90s by crossing mountains, rivers and forests to offer, in high-quality text and photos, immersive perspectives of nature and people from the non-urban country. TERRA got in trouble when National Geographic magazine arrived in Brazil, in 2000. I started to work as a freelancer reporter for National Geographic Brasil in 2008; was hired in 2011 as editor; left in 2013 and still consider myself an independent reporter for them.
One big paragraph to say that, despite traveling to numerous unforgettable places and publishing (what I consider to be) relevant articles, I felt like something was missing — here comes the cliche. I wanted to reach a bigger audience, I wanted to make the environment mainstream. I still want. So the real question is: Should we go video for this?
I still value longform journalism, which definitely has space and audience to thrive in Brazil. But no one in mainstream media is doing short videos to tell more people about how climate change is affecting fishermen in the Amazon region or to spread key information about the Zika virus in 48 seconds. We want Ambiental, the project we created in Brazil, to be the first Brazilian channel to consistently produce social videos on environmental and scientific issues. You can think of our Facebook page (the same goes for the future Youtube channel) as NowThis or AJ+ meeting National Geographic.
Here is one video we tested and the link at our Facebook page or copy this link: http://bit.ly/1ToYgcL
The Portuguese version of the same video above, combined with another one about sharks, achieved the interesting mark of 27K views, with 44 shares. I like the numbers, especially considering that these videos are not more than prototypes made exclusively with apps for smartphones. The powerful images, most of them photos from the brilliant Brazilian photographer Daniel Botelho, worked in our favor. And that’s all on purpose: We want Ambiental to be very visual because the challenge we are facing is not only to make scientific information accessible, but also appealing.
We spoke with the audience. Here is what people told us.
After launching the videos and waiting for the general response, I asked for personal feedback from people with different backgrounds. I did it in my Facebook timeline and, more important, I approached some people individually for personal conversations. Let me share three interesting comments about the blue-whale video with you:
“I like the format: Short videos with less than 1 minute (of duration) are very handy, specially when you are waiting in the bank line or using public transportation. If it is longer than that (one minute), I usually don’t watch to the end. I enjoyed learning about blue-whales and global warming, but I’d like to see videos about traditional communities in Brazil”
Amanda Cardoso, Biologist
“What is surprising to me is that I usually consume environmental news related to disasters, unlike this one. Short videos are my favorite format for news! The one you presented is really good: I like the balance between text, image and music.”
Ricardo Aehse, Physical Educator
“What a great idea (short videos for environmental issues). In our recent experience (OECO), in a much longer video, people left after 45 seconds. I think the text was too big in this one about the blue-whale, but I really liked it.”
Eduardo Pergurier, Journalist
Quick comments about the feedback: It is extremely interesting that Ricardo didn’t feel like the video was also about a “natural” (ok, not so natural) disaster — global warming. Enticed by the beautiful images, the charismatic character and the music, he didn’t experience any repulsive sensation. I also appreciated Eduardo’s mention of his own experience with a video published in OECO, a traditional web project for environmental issues in Brazil where he is the editor: Like Amanda said, “If it is longer than one minute, I don’t watch to the end.”
What now?
Prototype, test, feedback. I followed the teachings from CUNY, where I am a 2016 fellow at The Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. We have a proven format, however, we also have a huge problem: Facebook has the audience, but not the money.
NowThis, the market leader in this format, with 700 million monthly views across all platforms in 2015, is closely followed by AJ+, who has achieved 2.2 billion views in the same year. The numbers are impressive and show the interest of the audience, most of them between 18 and 34 years old. Just to give you an idea of the potential for scalability: In Brazil, according to the last official research, there are more than 51 million Brazilians between 15 and 29 years old. And the market for online news is huge, as you can see in this presentation (the image with Brazil's map):
The problem, again, is the business plan, as explained in this excerpt from digiday: “The monetization strategy for these publishers (NowThis and AJ+) is still unclear: build big audiences, then work with the platforms on ad deals, or team up with aligned brands looking to reach those big audiences. The problem is that playbook has worked on YouTube but cannot be exported, at least currently, to Facebook.”
For a small project like Ambiental, I see three remaining possibilities:
- We will continue to produce the videos, grow our audience and monetize by generating branded video in partnership with a video production company in Brazil (we have already established this partnership);
- Raise money from an investor or a foundation. We are a non-profit, but we can review that for the social video arm if necessary;
- Build a partnership with an international channel or a bigger local media outlet;
What will it be? I really don’t know. But I am sure about one thing: It is going be Journalism. That’s what it is about.
