Make It Personal

Interactivity is a big factor in online journalism. Videos can tell stories much better than print because moving pictures and sound have a quality that can't be recreated when reading words. Despite this quality, it's easy to forget that you still need to make the video story personal.

When a story is personal, I can remember it so much more. People's emotions are more visible on screen than in words. Videos don't have to be professionally produced - some don't look like they were - but when something is personal and touches a viewer, they won't care it wasn't professionally produced.

Washingtonpost.com: Travis Fox
Travis Fox's story on Johnny's White, a bar that's open 24/7, follows one patron who calls the bar his home. He has friends at every Johnny's White bar, and I'm sure the fact the one on Bourbon Street is open 24 hours helps him spend long hours with his friends. When he says the bar has become home, you can see his sincerity in his eyes and at the way he looks down at the counter.

This story is successful because:

• you can see all the different patrons who have been brought together by this bar
• these people's nonchalance towards Hurricane Gustav could not have been conveyed in any other way
• people talking and laughing is much more powerful than reading, "he laughed," "they talked"

Yet, this story isn't as compelling as the Tijuana: Staying Negative story because there isn't a variety of shots. Fox did what he could with the limited video, and I think he did a good job. However, looking at the same video and listening to the same person got a little boring after a while.

Border Stories: Tijuana: Staying Negative
This story focuses on how AIDS/HIV don't have a border. It's rampant in Mexico and the U.S. A group of people decided to create a mobile clinic that would help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. They have done this by passing out condoms and giving out clean needles.

This story is more interesting to watch because:

• There are a variety of shots. You see shots of them passing out condoms, shots of people in the flood gates shooting up, how poverty has affected the places near the border, etc.
  
• The narrative/dialogue is more compelling. When the doctor talks about how they can get people to forget they are HIV positive by promoting a happy environment at the clinic through soccer and fun activities, it's extra touching because you saw video of people playing soccer and laughing when she said this.
• You can see how heroin has affected these people. There's a close-up of one man who I'm assuming is high, and you can see it in his eyes and demeanor that heroin has taken its toll on him.
  

Both the Gustav and Tijuana story were told well because they focused on people. Both could have functioned well as a story that wasn't personal. They could have just advertised the bar or how HIV/AIDS is in Mexico and the U.S. However, they didn't. The producers found one person, even several, to help tell the story. Such a quality makes a story more memorable because I will remember a person's face more than a bunch of words.