Media Comparison
Comments(1) I chose to look at a story covering the FDA Panel passing a low dose option of Pfizer for children. My print article is from AP News and the video story is from NBC News. The leads between the two were pretty similar, however, the video broadcast was a little more specific. NCS News’s lead was “FDA advisory panel OKs Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11” and the lead for AP News was “FDA panel backs Pfizer’s low-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kids.”
Both stories contained similar content. Both included outside sources, background information, etc. Judging by how long the video was and how long it took me to read the print version I would say they were pretty similar in length as well.
The two versions used outside sources and quotes. They both had Dr.’s and other specialists speak/were quoted, granted they weren’t the exact same people across the story, but the credibility was there. The same goes for attribution. Both print and broadcast attributed their information if it wasn’t directly quoted.
The use of pictures and sound in the broadcast story was expected and went along with what we have already learned so far. The picture changes, it’s a clip of something, they go back to the individual talking, etc. It was a long story (about 6 minutes) so they really needed to keep the viewer’s attention if they were going to make it through the whole piece. Overall, I think the use of pictures and sound was done well. I was able to watch the whole thing without much of an issue.
Something I did find odd was the use of graphics on the side when someone was talking. Normally this isn’t unusual for a broadcast story, but they weren’t necessarily talking about what the graphics showed. They just seemed to be a source of movement for the viewer to look at. However, while I was looking at those I found myself not paying attention to what was being said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-advisory-panel-oks-pfizer-vaccine-kids-5-11-rcna3726
Good observations, Elizabeth. Images can be distracting and do take attention away from the story being told. I watched some of the video and I’m wondering how much of that was broadcast. Lester Holt does sometimes de interviews on the nightly news, but this seems like a larger package that may have been cut down when it aired.
The AP is almost always more concise than the average NYT story.