Journalism.co.uk: Japan’s NHK Tries Out 1-Minute Documentaries

Posted December 08, 2016
Share To
 
 

Japan's largest broadcaster is experimenting with short-form documentaries, published to Facebook,  to try and attract younger audiences. There is no denying that the media landscape is shifting.  That means that there is a generational divide in the way that people seek out, and consume content -- particularly journalism.

of Journalism.co.uk reports on the story:

NHK now produces one-minute documentaries based on the investigative work undertaken for the television programme, which are published on Facebook.

“We took a 25-minute documentary programme and condensed it into one minute,” he told delegates at the News Xchange conference in Denmark today (1 December).

“This is not just a teaser, but a complete product to deliver our journalism.”

Hanawa joined NHK as a documentary maker to produce long programmes, but since he started working on the experiment, short form has grown on him.

“I love longform documentaries but after I started this trial, I gradually realised that the length of video is not so important – [making a] documentary is not a matter of length, but of storytelling. What kind of message do you want to deliver? That is the point.”

One of the experiment's success stories is a video on student loans and bankruptcy, which exceeded the team's expectations on audience reach.

"The largest number were men between the ages of 35 and 44 who don't normally watch our programme on TV," he said.

Read the full report.

 


Recent Posts

The world of television before cable had been limited to 3 networks and a handful of local TV stations. But the advent of cable meant that suddenly there were 60, 70 soon to be 100 or more new channels. And all of those channels needed content. But where were they going to get it from? A huge market for content had just opened up.


Q: What do TV news and Netflix have in common? A: They both appear on the same screen. They both tell stories.


This morning, I went out early to buy my copy of the weekend FT — a great newspaper, by the way. I was a bit surprised to see that my regular newsstand, on 6th Avenue and 55th Street, had exactly 3 newspapers for sale — one copy of Baron’s and two copies of The New York Post. That was it. No FT, no NY Times, no Washington Post, no… nothing.


Share Page on:

Twitter