BBC targets social media users with Instagram video news
BBC News is stepping up its efforts to reach new audiences on social media platforms after mobile and tablet viewing figures overtook desktop use for the first time in December.
On 16 January, BBC News launched Instafax, a new short-form video news service delivered to Instagram users. The project is a month-long experiment, with three 15-second videos uploaded a day, intended to serve as a roundup of the day’s news.
The name is a throwback to the BBC’s former Ceefax service – the world’s first teletext service that ran on UK television until 2012. This is described as the updated version of a text-based, short-form news service for the digital age.
The bit that’s missing from all of these stories is probably its most brilliant:
For 38 years, the BBC ran an information service called Ceefax which delivered the news in short four-sentence blurbs.
In order to create news copy for Ceefax, every BBC News staffer was required to file their stories in a way where the entire story could be understood in the first four lines.
Although the Ceefax service shut down in 2012, staffers never stopped writing using the four sentence summary format.
That’s when Matt Danzico realized that he could just grab the first four lines of a story, pair it with already cleared footage + images to create posts for Instagram, and Bob’s your uncle.
Seeing as this text is actually marked up (view source on any BBC News article and search for <p class=”introduction“ id=”story_continues_1”>) scripting this process would be the next interesting step to take.
It’s been so fun watching this develop privately, I’m glad it’s finally out in the world for everyone to see.
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