In December 2009, a piece of “Action News” of the Tiger Woods’ car accident story was produced by Apple Daily Taiwan and soon got widespread international attention and soon republished by many other western media. (click here to see the news)
What is “Action News”? It is the breaking news produced by animations. It is said by Apple Daily that their Animated News Department has recruited over 160 people to product the animation videos as soon as the news happen. They aim to produce 20 videos each day, whose audience is willing to pay a small fee to watch. What’s more, cell phone users only need to scan a 2D bar code printed on the newspaper (also known as quick response (QR) code) to immediately watch the animated news clips on their mobile phones.
Some critics have questioned its accuracy and violent content, but it still cannot affect its significant meaning for infographic news, that is, GOING FROM 2D TO 3D VISUALIZATION.
For audience, the animated news will attract the younger generation who prefer graphics to words and thus may be help traditional print media to overcome the great challenge of the circulation decline. On the other hand, for the communication technology, animated news is nothing innovative but a technology integration of animation and internet, a journalism format innovation rather than technology per se.
Actually New York Times has also once produced the similar animated news to recover the bombing scenario happened in Iraq. But why it is Apple Daily rather than New York Times who first officially operates the new business? Perhaps 3G mobile phones were still not as popular at that time as today? Indeed, 3G’s wide-are wireless service can help the animation news to achieve the widespread usage issue. From this point, we can expect that it will be a new trend for breaking news, as well as a new outlet for traditional print media’s future development.
However, there is also a social debate about the animation news contents, which all focus on domestic violence, sexual abuse and murder etc. In Taiwan, some activists even made the street protest about its media social responsibility. To be honest, I was not quite surprised at the news stories. It is just another format for Apple Daily’s scandalous and salacious style of news presentation. In response, Apple Daily has set up a rating system for its animated news, which divides its news contents into two categories: restricted and unrestricted, with the restricted contents labeled with a warning against viewing by underage audience.
Meanwhile, Next Media, the owner of Apple Daily, is also exploring ways to interact with Internet users more effectively. Would we imagine if we could have an online donation through cell phones immediately after watching the animated news about Heidi earthquake?
Every new trend will meet resistance in the beginning - some will evolve and learn from the critics, while still retaining some originality. That is what I hope will happen with the animated news. Let’s wait together.
No comments:
Post a Comment