Mediums That Can Help Journalists Tell Stories

Many forms of media help journalists tell stories. Whether if it’s on TV, online news article, blogs, or the most recent form being through social media.

So far my class has concluded that different social media platforms such as Facebook Live, Instagram, and Snapchat are all effective methods of story telling for journalists and just may be the future of news. All the major social media platforms would be convenient for consumers to receive their news but other methods such as reddit and GIFs, in my opinion, wouldn’t be as effective.

Reddit is a social platform that not many people interact with let alone has ever heard of it. it seems as if it is it’s own world of nerds who post things or about things then everyone voices their opinions, comments and so on. I believe that it has potential to be a medium that journalists could use to tell stories if only more people used reddit like how they use Instagram and Facebook.

I also believe that the reddit users are satisfied with knowing that not many people uses that site and that only a certain type of person really interacts on it as if everyone all has that one nerdy feature in common. Reddit is not for everyone but the news is no matter how you obtain it. Reddit would not be the way to go in my opinion.

GIF’s are another medium for journalists to tell news would not be all that effective in my opinion as well. Making a video in GIF’s to tell a story is an OK method but not to cover every type of the story like you would be able to do if you were using Instagram or Snapchat. Maybe just to promote something or get a message out then it would be effective. GIF’s are best used when you have one short video or still photos and a caption and in order to tell a whole story with such limitations could be tricky but has potential if you can be really creative.

Also because they are meant to move really fast could also be a downfall if it was used for storytelling. The story would have to be short if its going to be told in a manner where consumers could understand it. Many people do not watch videos through GIF’s and do not expect them to be that long so maybe if extended GIF’s become a trend, then it could work.