4 video platforms for 1 story

Analysis of the BBC extensive video coverage of the Catalan vote on TV, web and social media

Video is nowadays published in multiple platforms, designed for different audiences and consumed on various devices. That is why in this analysis I’ll be talking about videos in plural. Each one with its defined but changing characteristics.

Last 1st of October, Catalonia held an independence referendum steeped in controversy as the Spanish government considered it illegal. The BBC produced different video pieces about the story for its multiple platforms — television, website and social media — and for a range of audiences — including children.

“Every package should start with a strong image”, is stated on The Broadcast Journalism Handbook (Hudson & Rowlands, 2012). Burridge, reporting from Barcelona, begins with the strongest images of the day: Spanish national police kicking, throwing and pulling people on streets and out of polling stations.

In addition to action images, the package includes also what is called ‘actuality’ or ‘sound bites’ in media jargon (Dunn, 2005) — interviews with witnesses and a Spanish PM statement — and a piece to camera.

They used a non-linear editing with the intention of emphasising the police behaviour. Images from their action around Catalonia take up nearly half of the report. They are followed by a demonstration in favour of Spain, the statement from PM Mariano Rajoy and the voting itself.

On the last one and a half minute a small chronological story is told, which makes up one of the central parts of a TV report. It is the arrival, action and departure of the Spanish police in one of the polling stations.

Why is it so important? Because the BBC reporters were there and they want to make it clear with the voiceover — “in a neighbourhood WE found the Spanish police” –, the appearance of the correspondent on screen while doing an interview and his piece to camera in front on the police vans.

This package has also an element that distinguishes it from classical TV reports and brings it closer to online and social media video: user generated content (UGC). Most of the images in the beginning where recorded on people’s phones and updated on social media (SM). That means that, even if it is not the same quality as the rest of the filming, it was relevant and had to be verified.

However, the treatment and inclusion of this UGC is different here than in SM. Burridge’s voiceover adds context but also explains what can be seen on the images. The information in the correspondent’s words “this was the scene in the north” or “watch the blond woman in the middle” would usually be included with graphics on online and social media videos.

Tom Burridge was aware that the ENG images would not get to the audience until some hours later, so he posted also some videos on Twitter. They are not as professional but, for example in the one above, we can see his journalistic mind. It is what Montgomery calls a quick hit: “To record a video within Twitter where you do a voiceover while recording”.

That same technique is used in the BBC video, as text appearance and — specially — transitions between videos are not like the raw cuts on the TV report. This is very important on social media, because the most powerful tool to make the user stop is image, as sound is usually off on smartphones.

As Boyd adds, “the tone of the script, music, visuals and transitions were all carefully chosen to suit on-the-go, promiscuous audiences that would be watching on their mobile phones, predominantly with the sound off”.

If you turn the sound on, the figure of the narrator is not there. Ambience sound of people shouting and singing is the only output and the only context added is on three pieces of text written on the images.

Instagram does not permit links in post description, so it must be very clear. In this case, a context paragraph and various hashtags accompany the video, which currently has 266,554 views.

Just a couple days later an online video was posted in the BBC news website with a very different narrative. In this case, we don’t see a report about some actions, but more contextual information in a similar form to a less than too minute ‘explainer’.

It uses a mixture of narrative elements from the two analysed above, as well as distinctive ones. For Mary Angela Bock, in “web video freed from the scheduling constraints of broadcasting, narrative choices are myriad: Story length can be more fluid; journalists can appear or disappear, and a story might include interactive graphics, animations and a mix of stills and moving images” (2016).

In this case, the distinctive elements are background music, subtitles — as it could be viewed without sound on some devices –, animated subheading and still images in movement.

Also, the position of the reporter is very different. First, because of the proximity that the close up shot gives us — also thought to be seen on smaller screens –, and second, because what he says now aren’t explanations of the images any more.

In her study, Bock also found out that “television stories [videos on their websites] were far more likely (96%) to be narrated by a journalist, while newspaper videos were more apt to turn the storytelling reins over to an interview subject or provide no narration at all”. The BBC, although adapting new formats, knows the value and on-screen experience of its reporters, so they keep Burridge on the online video too.

The questions are not about the future, as in the video for the general public, but about the framing of the situation. This kind of video is very important because solves the problem of contextualisation.

As David Buckingham explained, “news produce a deep emotional impact on children because they have difficulties understanding the broader causes of what they see. They are a relatively new public and they lack both of experience and context to understand information as gender, which precisely would make them have a more critical view” (1997). It is essential for the information provided to be complete.

Background music and animated texts and graphics are also used in this television video, making it similar to online video. The role of the journalist makes us think of ‘youtubers’, because of the multiple shots she is being recorded, which include close ups and movement. This could be done to approximate it to its young audience.

They are definitely ‘digital natives’, whom Marc Prensky explains that “think and process information very differently to their predecessors” (2001). He thinks they do not want to concentrate following the old patterns of communication. Being born in an environment where they not only receive but can also react to stimuli (e.g. video games) makes them want to give feedback on all types of communications.

Another big difference from the ‘adults’ news’ is that any image of violence has been used. Even though the script does not avoid mentioning that “they are not happy in the way police have treated people”, the visual narrative does not include these explicit images.

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