First, let me say, I’m a reader and always have been. I read and comprehend very quickly, and for my average news and information consumption, I’d much rather read a web page than listen to audio or video. I can get the essential news from a quick scan much faster than listening to someone speak. Then if the story really interests me or I want to see associated footage, I can always watch video after.

That said, there are times when the information I want to absorb is better conveyed through images, or at any rate, video can help me understand a concept more quickly. Many “how to” videos, for example, can let you visualize how to do something much more easily than reading text and looking at static images. I recently looked up videos on specific aspects of gardening, composting, and cooking. With the proliferation of inexpensive equipment and free video hosting services, you can find good video (and plenty of bad) on just about any topic.

I love that people associated with the nonprofit I work with, The Weston A. Price Foundation, are making videos to help them market their books, DVDs, lectures, appearances, cottage industries, and products. Here are a few examples of good videos on some of my pet topics (nutrient-dense foods, sustainable agriculture):

• Fermenting Vegetables with Sandor Katz
• Real Protein Cookies by the Healthy Home Economist
• Broccoli, Cheese, and Bacon Frittata by Maureen Diaz
• Raised on Grass: Pasture Fed Animals
• The Weston A. Price Foundation

“Rapid” is a hot word in the e-learning industry. The speed and ease with which you can create an online course is the big selling point for many software developers. Ease of use is always good, but for me and my clients, speed to audience is rarely the most critical factor. Over the years I’ve been developing e-learning courses the big ticket item our clients want is ability to easily edit content after the product is originally delivered. A lot of our work is for government agencies and once a contract ends, it doesn’t matter if that agency needs to change one word of a product, if the contract is over it’s a huge headache to get the work done. That’s why so many statements of work that come to us require use of non-proprietary products, and/or the requirement that said agency will have the ability to make edits to a deliverable at a later date.

To that end we often develop using off-the-shelf products with which our clients have the ability to update facts or figures in their training products without having to recontract. They may need some training, just as when they first opened Word or PowerPoint, but the ability is there, and the effort is similar to working in either of those programs.

One challenge that comes from keeping e-learning course content that easily editable is that it can be prohibitive to integrate other media, like video—and I’m talking professionally produced video, not webcam footage which I recognize is becoming more readily available to e-learning authors—into the course. For example we’re working with clients for which we’d like to have an actual presenter as part of their online course. For another we’re producing short, personal video stories, and for yet another, we’re capturing brief personal interviews. The purpose of each course is different, as is the audience and tone, but for all three projects we’re keeping one thing in common among the videos—they won’t include content—or even key personnel—that are likely to need to be updated. Our host will stick to generic content like the welcome, section transitions and historical examples. Our interviewees will be telling personal stories and sharing opinions. We shy away from including agency leadership in video (particularly not in an election year!).

We let the video do what it does best, add story or personality to support the facts or techniques being conveyed via the training course. By keeping the video elements evergreen we limit the likelihood of costly revisions, and give our clients a product that will better stand the test of time.

Before the iPad launched this month, video was already an increasing component in persuasive communication. Most traditional media – like newspapers – have some on-demand video component while other new media entities eschew text all together for video monologues and dialogues. While the iPad is certainly the newest, and biggest, mobile device on which to view video content, mobile devices like smart phones and portable media players have been available for a number of years.

Both the devices and the networks that serve data to them are maturing and soon they will catch up to the superior wireless networks in Europe and Asia. Then it will be a race to corner that market for the institutions that want eyeballs on their training, awareness, and recruiting media. If you can manage that workflow now you will be in an envious position. Right now, I would say that the newspaper industry and the social media industry best understand how to serve their content simultaneously to the web and the mobile markets. More and more people will look towards their mobile devices for educational, training, and recruiting content as untethered devices become the norm.

Image Courtesy: globwon-online

Given the near ubiquity of video today, it seems almost incomprehensible that just ten years ago the medium was circumscribed by the four walls of a television set.  Today, video has become unmoored from the confines of both the television industry AND set top boxes, and it has done so by the very same route that print and radio have taken—by breaking away from the limits of analog technology.

So what does this mean to you?

As a consumer, it means that you have more choice than ever.  With the advent of TiVo and Hulu, you can watch your favorite television shows whenever you want because appointment television is now a thing of the past.  You can go to YouTube and watch millions of short-form videos: snippets of political speeches, commercials that you actually WANT to watch and almost anything else that you can imagine, from dancing cats to videos of your niece.  iTunes is quickly becoming a destination for music videos and movies, just as it previously became a destination for single hits.  And Wi-Fi capable devices like laptops, smart phones, iPods, and Apple’s iPad are making it easy to consume video on the go.  Video is everywhere and available via multiple devices…freeing it up from the tyranny of the set top box.

But what if you or your organization wants to communicate via video?  What if you have a marketing, public relations, or branding campaign you want to disseminate?  Depending on the message, it means that you have a lot more delivery choices available to you than ever before – delivery choices that can help you reach your target audience via a very powerful and persuasive medium.  No longer dependent on an expensive broadcast medium that threw a wide net in hopes of reaching a small percentage of viewers, you can now target your audience and reach them via a multiplicity of channels and devices.

It also means that you have to do a little more homework before embarking on that marketing, branding, or public relations campaign.  But no worries, over the next few weeks we’ll be helping you think through this new set of challenges

Declining readership, unsustainable business models and the proliferation of free online news sites are challenging the viability of traditional journalism channels, especially print (newspapers and news magazines) and radio. Reeling from the speed and no-cost access of online sites such as The Huffington Post and Craigslist (which took away one of the most profitable centers for newspapers, classified ads), journalism is redefining itself for the 21st Century. It has to. Although the recent changes have been most obviously devastating for print journalism, radio and television news are also starting to feel the effects.

Although it’s difficult to predict with any certitude what journalism will ultimately look like, it will probably be defined by the following:

1. The Internet: More and more news will be consumed online. Although still lagging behind local and national television news, according to a 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project report, the internet is now the third most popular news platform…a trend that continues to accelerate, so look for it to overtake television in the near future just as it has overtaken print and radio.
2. “Anytime, Anywhere” Access: News will be accessed via a multiple number of traditional and new media platforms. Consumers will access news when they want it and will do so multiple times a day via multiple platforms.
3. Blended: More and more news online will be a blend of print, video and multimedia. Well underway, this trend will continue to gain momentum and consumers will come to expect high levels of media interactivity when accessing news content, especially when dealing with particularly complex issues.
4. Mobile: Pew also reports that “33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.” With the recent introduction of other mobile devices, such as Apple’s iPad, you can expect those numbers to continue to rise.
5. Video-centric: Video is playing an increasingly important role in the development of news online and on mobile devices, and video news content draws higher advertising dollars than any other kind of news. This is one of the trends that will affect television news in the same way that blogs and other online news sites affected print journalism.
6. Participatory: Increasingly, more and more news content is being generated by users. According to the same Pew report cited above, “37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news.” Although the largest proportion of user generated news content is text based, the increased penetration of broadband into the household as well as the increasing number of consumer devices that now include built-in cameras (laptop webcams, cell phones and other mobile devices) will make it easier for consumers to participate in the creation of video news content.
7. Shareable: Also according to the cited Pew report, social networks as well as social networking technology will play an important role in the sharing and filtering of news content. Internet users have already become accustomed to sharing news via email as “more than 8 in 10 online news consumers get or share links in emails.” As more of those users also become accustomed to using Facebook, Digg, Linked In, and the like to share news, social networks will play an increasingly important role in the dissemination of news.

Here at Mind & Media we are conscious of these trends and take them into account as we help our clients communicate in this evolving media landscape. We are in the midst of producing an online, interactive video series on health care reform for UPI.com. The new approach uses webcam technology to encourage participation by experts, pundits, other reporters, and viewers and helps to delve deeper into this complex issue than would otherwise be possible.