The response to this consultation has been very encouraging so far and this week we’d like to look at a few specific areas of content for our soon to be launched newsroom.
We want to do more than simply post news releases online and plan to use more multimedia content in an effort to reach the widest possible audience.
One obvious area for discussion is our use of video.
Can you point us to examples where video news is used well or poorly? The examples could relate to local authorities or other organisations.
How do you think the use of video will enhance our coverage?
Please submit a comment below.
>We want to do more than simply post news releases online and plan to use more multimedia content in an effort to reach the widest possible audience.
Be wary of equating online communication with multimedia content – do it well and it’s very good indeed (eg Common Craft’s explanations of tech questions http://www.youtube.com/user/commoncraft?gl=GB&hl=en-GB – imagine “plain english” explanations of the mechanisms for approaching Council) do it poorly and it’s embarrassing and ignored – most online communication is still writing, just a different type of conversational writing.
Presenting facts in an easy to read, share, use, re-use way is much more important than anything flashy.
Jon
Thanks for the comments. The key for us is to convey our message(s) as clearly as possible and to ensure council news reaches the widest possible audience.
We’re not looking to do anything flashy just for the sake of it and, to use the example of video content, this will only be used if it enhances a particular story.
This is not an exercise in simply ‘ticking all the right boxes’. We want to know what the audience wants and then respond.
Geoff