Each customer uses our news media video workspace in their own way, but it's always easy to see when trending moments command universal attention. As usual, June 2021 was packed with big news stories and our customers were all over them. Content producers were relentless in their quest to curate powerful video moments.

From June 1 through June 27, SnapStream users ran 33,317 search queries. 

Below are some of the major search topics of the month.

George Floyd - For his role in the murder of George Floyd, former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison. Darnella Frazier, the teen who recorded the powerful and tragic video was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for "for courageously recording... a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice."

Juneteenth - After passing through both the Senate and the House, President Biden signed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The law enshrines June 19 as a day for the nation to commemorate the belated end of slavery in the United States.

Georgia - Attorney General Garland announced the Justice Department is suing Georgia for introducing new voting restrictions. Garland says the laws “were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote.”

And That’s Not All

Other big searches this month included:

• John Bolton - The Justice Department dropped its civil lawsuit over former national security adviser John bolton’s memoir
• William Barr - Details have emerged that former Attorney General William Barr had a profanity-laden split with Trump over election lies. Barr said Trump’s election lies were “all Bulls--t.”
• Tulsa - An emotional President Biden remembered June 1 as the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.

June proved, once again, just how powerful video moments can be. So, keep searching, keep snapping, and we look forward to seeing what captures everyone's attention next month.

“Spiderman’s the best!” 

“Nope. Batman is.”

“D.C. Comics are lame. I’m Team Marvel all day!” 

People love their opinions and often make their consumption choices in direct correlation. Superhero arguments aside, the reality is sources play a huge role in the acceptance of their content. Whether it’s The New York Times versus The Wall Street Journal, CNN versus Fox News, or Marvel versus D.C., Americans are highly-opinionated, picky, and skeptical about the information they ingest, especially depending on where they get it. Good luck convincing Uncle Earl at the barbecue that your favorite news blog is better than his trusty channel-of-choice.

During a tumultuous and politically-polarized 2020 election season, Gallup and the Knight Foundation released a study, NewsLens 2020: How Americans Process the News, that measured US attitudes toward different online news sources. The purpose was to examine the extent partisanship played in how people engaged with online news content and to deduce whether solid journalism could cross the political divide.

To measure engagement, Gallup and Knight used an experimental news platform and aggregator originally developed in 2017. The experiment conditions were simple: randomly feed more than 1,500 partisan readers articles in both natural and blinded conditions (labeled or unlabeled with source cues). Content was supplied from Democratic-leaning, Republican-leaning and no-lean sources. More than 44,000 article clicks and 27,000 ratings were registered. The results were published with the hope of providing useful insights to journalists, policymakers and academia.

Let’s dig in and snack on a few of the findings, shall we?

Despite Partisanship, Readers Source Choices Varied

Surprisingly, despite their political leanings, readers chose content from both sympathetic and adversarial sources, even when source cues were visible.

In the natural condition, out of every 20 articles served, the click rate of users with partisan commitments registered:

• 4.6% Sympathetic outlet
• 4.1% No-lean outlet
• 3.8% Adversarial outlet

In the blinded condition, the click rate demonstrated a marginal difference:

• 4.7% Sympathetic outlet
• 4.0% No-lean outlet
• 4.4% Adversarial outlet

Defying the theory of cognitive dissonance, the study found that while partisan selective engagement was present, the margin of selective exposure was modest. With the source visible, out of an average 100 articles, a hypothetical partisan user chose 36 from sympathetic outlets, 33 from no-lean channels, and 31 from politically adversarial sources. Gallup and Knight concluded that regardless of political affiliations, readers were not inclined to remain within their own echo chambers.

The Messenger Carries More Weight than the Message

With the overwhelming volume of news available today, a news source and its agreeableness to the user often dictates the perceived level of credibility more than the content itself. Think about your own political stance and how just the mention of CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax or Fox News might immediately frame how you would judge their content.

NewsLens examined reader ratings of news stories and discovered that when source labels were hidden, users gave articles from politically sympathetic news sources a higher rating versus adversarial outlets. However, readers gave even higher ratings when source cues were visible. Displaying the news outlet contributed to more than half of the variance in user ratings between “friendly” and “hostile” news sources. The takeaway: for readers with a defined political stance - the specific news outlets shaped their impression of the material more than the actual content itself.

Perceived Relevance Bolsters Impression of Journalistic Quality

As readers, we often subconsciously judge news stories across a range of benchmarks:

• Overall quality
• Perceived Fairness
• Personal Relevance
• Completeness
• Accuracy

NewsLens examined whether readers distinguished between these various components using a five-star rating system. Readers rated articles similarly across all five criteria, with half of the content receiving the same rating across all categories. However, using a control variable in the model that factored in the relationship between journalistic quality and the residuals of each criteria allowed NewsLens to discover a statistically significant and positive association between personal relevance and perceived journalistic quality. 

With all factors considered, readers responded more favorably to material that was “covered in a way that mattered to them,” thus boosting perceived journalistic quality of the material.

Wrap-Up

The NewsLens report makes it crystal clear: partisanship strongly informed how open and receptive readers were to news stories based on the outlets they come from. However, some common ground remains — especially for what readers judge as good journalism. The NewsLens findings are insightful and we invite you to check out the actual report to dig further into the findings and better understand how end users engage with online news.  

Now, only one question remains…

Are you Team Marvel or D.C.?

Want to try the original news media video workspace for yourself? Try us free for 7 days to search and clip the biggest news moments as they happen.

Each customer uses our news media video workspace in their own way, but it's always easy to see when major moments get everyone's attention. And May 2021 was chock full of big news stories -- you know, just like every other month before it in recent memory.

We're back at it this month looking at the top search topics in May. From May 1 through May 27, SnapStream users ran 32,240 search queries. Below are some of the hottest search topics of the month.

Restaurants and minimum wage - several restaurants complained of worker shortages as COVID restrictions lifted. For many chains, this brought to a head a years-long battle over wages in the restaurant industry, with some - including Chipotle and McDonald's - ultimately announcing wage increases that are likely to force others in the space to follow suit.

Asian Americans - in addition to May being Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month,  signed the bipartisan-supported COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law. The legislation comes in the wake of increased violence toward Asian Americans throughout the pandemic.  

January 6 - Guys - did something happen on January 6 this year? Guess we'll find out, maybe. The date of the insurrection was back on everyone's radars as the House passed a bill to investigate the attack on the Capitol. 

Cheney and Marjorie - raise your hand if you'd thought much about Liz Cheney or Marjorie Taylor Greene prior to 2021. Yeah...us either.

Both made headlines in May, with Rep. Cheney in the spotlight for being ousted from her House leadership post by fellow GOP members. Her transgression? Refusing to perpetuate the false idea that the presidential election was rigged.

At the other end of the GOP spectrum was Rep. Greene, who continues to snag the spotlight with her fringe viewpoints. Just when we thought her statement about Jewish space lasers was peak MTG, she one-upped herself this month, making waves by comparing House floor mask mandates to the Holocaust.

The news is WILD, y'all.

Other big searches this month included:

• Critical race theory - several states have recently introduced bills that would prohibit critical race theory from being taught in public schools. And House Republicans introduced a bill that would ban diversity training for federal employees and the military. 
  
  
• Gaza and Israel - a ceasefire came after 11 days of fighting and more than 240 casualties. This decades-old conflict is far from over and has precipitated demonstrations and protests around the globe.
  
  
• Cyber ninjas - the folks leading the charge auditing the November 2020 election results in Arizona. 
  
  
• NFL Draft - Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence is headed to Jacksonville in hopes of helping the Jaguars do better than 1-15 this season.
  
  
• Bill Gates - Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. Think we will see either of them on Tinder at some point?
  
  
• Zoom dysmorphia - apparently seeing yourself in the corner of video calls all day can create a skewed self-image. Lucky for us, we were already pretty skewed to begin with.
  
  

Can't wait to see what captures everyone's attention next month!

Remember when we all thought we would work from home for no more than two or three weeks? Ah, memories of a simpler time.

Now that two weeks has turned into more than 60 for many of us, organizations of all kinds are making the switch to hybrid or fully remote work arrangements. For those of us in news and media, we need a lot more than Zoom to work efficiently and effectively in this new world. 

One of the largest challenges news, production, and public affairs teams have faced is being able to create, edit, and publish video content remotely. Issues with bandwidth, storage, reliability, and access add unnecessary speed bumps into processes where time is of the essence.

This is where a video workspace can be a game changer for unifying news-making and news-using teams.  These platforms enable teams to bring together several video content sources to make them easier to capture, manage, search, edit, & publish. And they can be used by a variety of departments, from production and news to creative services, ad sales, and PR/public affairs.

Considering a video workflow platform for your news organization? Be sure to look for these three things:

Cloud-Based Video News Access & Distribution

It's likely your organization gets news video content from a variety of sources - broadcast, OTT, streams - in addition to what you create in house. Historically, capturing all these different sources might have required different pieces of hardware, and monitoring them all simultaneously would have been cumbersome, if not impossible.

The first thing your news organization should look for in a video workspace is whether there is an appliance-free option. This can take many forms, from managed TV and hosting to content licensing. Regardless of how it works, the goal for your team should be a cloud-based user experience with no hardware for your team to manage and equal access to content across your organization.

What is Managed TV?
In most cases, accessing broadcast content still requires a cable or satellite subscription. Which means you'd need a cable box in your office. Platforms - like SnapStream - that include managed TV alleviate this burden by hosting the cable box for you, managing the service install and configuration, and handling troubleshooting and support. This means less IT and engineering support is required from your organization, you get better system reliability, and your focus can stay on creating content.

Easy-to-Use Video Editing Interface

We are all content creators now. Staying current and relevant in social media channels requires a tremendous amount of timely content. And we all know the social media platform algorithms are currently tuned to favor video-based content. The only way to keep up with the  content velocity required to grow followers and engagement  is to enable more people in your organization to create and publish quality content, wherever they are

In evaluating a news media video workspace, look at how intuitive the controls are and how easy it is to teach your team to use them. The idea is to give video editor-style capabilities to folks without them needing to be video editors. Make sure frame-specific editing is a breeze, transcripts are easy to reference to find specific moments, and there are a variety of branded  formats that can be output specifically for social media. 

Alert Everyone to Major Moments

What's important on any given day can vary from team to team. But when big events happen, your brand is mentioned, or your candidate makes a statement, your entire organization needs to take notice. Major moments hit everyone from the newsroom and production to creative services, public affairs, and advertising. And when the news moves fast, it can be a challenge to get the right content to everyone simultaneously. 

As you look at news media video workspaces, ensure the platform does 24/7 monitoring and allows you and your team to set up alerts for the topics that matter to you most. This capability ensures your organization can seamlessly stay aligned on everything from the progression of major news stories and statements and commentary about your candidate or brand to confirming advertising adjacencies and placement. 


Organizations of all sizes will continue looking for better ways to enable teams in a way that maximizes connection and collaboration in our remote and hybrid work world. The right video workspace can alleviate many of the common challenges news, media, and public affairs teams like yours grapple with as you work to get your arms around the news cycle and create compelling video content.

Want to try the original news media video workspace for yourself? Try us free for 7 days to search and clip the biggest news moments as they happen.

Because every SnapStream customer creates their own curated searchable video archive, we find that search trends can be as unique as the organizations we serve. Yet it’s always easy to see the biggest moments each month, because they get all our users searching.

This month, from April 1 through April 28, SnapStream users ran 38,956 search queries. Below are some of the hottest search topics of the month.

Fauci, India, and Vaccines -  SnapStream users are still searching for COVID-related terms, as the pandemic enters a new phase. Dr. Fauci appeared in more than 440 searches in April, as new COVID guidance emerged and vaccine availability ramped up. Searches for India rose sharply in the second half of the month as the country faces a heavy surge and new variants.

George Floyd - various search terms focused on George Floyd, Minneapolis Police, and Derek Chauvin were prevalent this month as the Chauvin trial resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts. 

Oscars - searches for The Oscars/The Academy Awards topped more than 300. It was exciting to see The Oscars come back this year. An incredible list of winners. Thank yous to parents for procreating. And Glenn Close doing Da Butt. It was a weird, wild event.

Other big searches this month included:

• Georgia & Stacey Abrams - many searches focused on the new Georgia voting law and restrictions around providing water to voters waiting in line
  
  
• Matt Gaetz - the term Venmo was often attached to these searches
  
  
• DMX - Ruff Ryder's Anthem will always be our favorite
  
  
• Marijuana & weed - it was 4/20, after all
  
  
• Biden (both Joe and Hunter) - infrastructure was also a hot term as the President shared his $4 Trillion economic plan
  
  
• Amazon - related to the union vote in Alabama
  
  

We are excited to see what the next month of searches will bring. 

Audience measurement and attribution is tougher than ever, with neither surveys nor browser data telling the full story. Fortunately, the Pew Research Center embarked upon a year-long study to better understand news consumption habits, technology usage, and how research methodologies are trying to keep up.

With the rise of digital media and the diversification of channels used by traditional news sources, not only do researchers have a tougher time measuring readership/viewership, but even audiences themselves are confused. While the Measuring News Consumption in a Digital Era study in its entirety covers ways to improve news attribution surveys and data-gathering, this blog will focus on the findings related to who is watching the news, how they're watching it, and their overall understanding of the news media landscape.

News Consumption is Relatively High, Media Literacy is Low

While most Americans claim to consume news on a regular or semi-regular basis, confusion exists around how news organizations actually work. 

According to the study, a little over half of respondents are at least fairly confident they can distinguish between news organizations that do their own reporting versus those that do not. 

When asked about specific outlets, including news aggregators like Google News and Apple News, more than two-thirds of respondents either thought these outlets did original reporting or weren't sure. 

 

 

Paying for News is Uncommon and Not Well Understood

What connotes 'paying for news' has changed drastically over the past decade. Historically, directly paying for news meant subscribing to a publication or purchasing one at the newsstand. With the rise of cable and the internet, more indirect forms emerged. 

Today, Americans get news from a vast set of sources but tend to think of buying access to news in specific terms. When broadly asked if they'd paid for news in the past year, 83% of respondents said they had not. 

However, when researchers asked respondents more specific questions as to whether they had subscribed to print or online news, or donated to a public broadcaster, the data shifted. Of the initial respondents who said they hadn't paid for news in the past year, 19% claimed to subscribe to print or online news when asked in those specific terms.

Overall, the vast majority of Americans are not directly paying to access news sources via subscription or donation, which puts greater pressure on news outlets to secure ad revenue, indirect revenue via licensing, and reimagine their financial models.

Streaming Services and Digital Devices Not Seen as News Sources

Audiences are broadly familiar with streaming devices and services, but a relatively small portion turn to these sources for news content. Less than 20% of study respondents said they get news at least sometimes from streaming devices or services, including Roku, Firestick, Netflix, and Hulu. These same respondents also responded as getting news from TV and digital devices. At the same time 85% of total survey respondents said they get news from mobile devices or PCs. 

Something doesn't quite add up, right?

The real answers emerged in the cognitive interviews with survey respondents. It turns out,  rather than seeing streaming devices or services as news sources, audiences think of them as tools that enable them to access a variety of content - entertainment, information, and possibly news - whenever they want. Put more simply, many respondents think of streaming services as either TV or internet content.

Social media algorithms are having a moment in the spotlight. Or rather, under the harsh light of the interrogation lamp.

From last year’s documentary, The Social Dilemma, to this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the algorithms powering the major social media platforms are under scrutiny. These algorithms drive which pieces of content users watch and read. And in our current landscape where the number of information sources is high and media literacy is low, disinformation can spread like wildfire.

That said, it will take time to see whether we’ll see significant changes to the way social media platforms use and tune their algorithms. For now, content creators of all kinds still need to stay aware of the routine updates made by each platform in order to maximize reach and audience engagement.

What are Social Media Algorithms?

Social media algorithms are what determine which posts a user sees in his or her feed. Algorithms utilize a variety of factors - including user behavior, post engagement, content type, and source -  to determine which content is most relevant to the user. The higher the relevancy, the more likely the content is to appear at the top of the user’s feed.  

Social media platforms use data science and machine learning to power and constantly tune their algorithms with the intent of providing an ever-better, more highly targeted user experience. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a data scientist to understand what kinds of content and behaviors the platforms’ algorithms favor. Most are pretty transparent about it and provide best practices for content creators, news media organizations, and marketers to follow. 

Here are 4 key things to keep in mind when posting newsworthy content across the various social platforms.

Seize the Moment on Twitter

Recently, Twitter’s big push has been around disinformation shared on its platform. Late last year, Twitter  updated its algorithms to focus on limiting the spread of misleading information or fake news. 

For legitimate news organizations, that means less noise and more opportunity for real news to take back the top spots in users’ feeds.

To make the most of this moment, news media and public affairs organizations should leverage every opportunity to deliver tangible proof and context in their Twitter posts. Give your audience the ability to hear directly from the source whenever possible. 

Experiment with New Social Platform Features

Social platforms will often give higher visibility or promote content that leverages new features. This can be a particularly useful tactic in expanding your followers and reach.

While Instagram hasn’t officially confirmed that its algorithm is promoting Reels (its response to the popularity of TikTok), users are seeing gains in their engagement when opting for Reels over traditional videos in the feed. In fact sports organizations have gotten major traction using Reels, with the NFL seeing 67% higher engagement. 

Since we're talking about Instagram, it’s also worth noting the platform provides greater real estate on its Explore page to Reels-based content, making it more likely for a new user to discover you and your narratives.

Redouble Your Efforts Around Social Media Best Practices

While social media algorithms are constantly evolving, there are ingredients that remain fairly constant in determining relevancy and where your post will appear in your users’ feeds. 

Audit your best-performing posts from the past few months and look for the following patterns:

Day and time - do you get better performance on certain days of the week? Are there peak times for engagement? Sure, there will always be breaking news that needs to get posted right now. Beyond that, aim to post content designed for your core target at the times where they are most likely to engage.

Conversation starters - which posts get comments or start conversations among your followers? Most platforms’ algorithms favor content that engages users with one another or prompts a response that transcends a simple like. Examine which post types and copy structures most frequently engage your audience to comment.

Impact of video - most platforms’ algorithms favor video-based posts. Look at what percentage of your posts featured video content and aim to increase it month over month. Most news organizations find that video content performs at least 2x better than text- or photo-based content.

Skip the Algorithm Entirely

Facebook not only continues to be the primary news source for many Americans, but it also offers a feature that is essentially exempt from its algorithm. Facebook Stories aren’t governed by the platform’s algorithm. Not only that, but Stories are featured at the top of the page, no matter what.

Facebook Stories are also a great mechanism for driving users to your website to look at other news stories. Per Facebook, 58% of users say they’ve gone to a company’s website for more info after watching a Story. Make sure your Story content is easy to understand, as 52% of users rated this as the top priority for this particular type of content. Leverage stories for breaking news, quick hits, and concise narratives.

Social media platforms will continue to pursue a more perfect user experience by way of algorithms. Though with the potential for greater oversight or regulation, it remains to be seen what the long-term future looks like for this approach. For the time being, understanding and keeping pace with what your audience wants most - and what the algorithms favor - is vital to maximizing audience reach and engagement for news media organizations of all sizes.

“In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.”

-Ellen Goodman

Speed and accuracy have always been strange bedfellows in the world of news media. The advent of the 24/7 news cycle changed the very idea of breaking news. And it increased the pressure on journalists to break news at a breakneck pace. Add social media to the mix and the need to feed the content beast feels nearly impossible. Then let’s not forget we are in the age of “fake news”, and the news industry must redouble its efforts around accuracy to regain public trust. Oh, and by the way, newsrooms are constantly being asked to do more with less as even the big-name outlets shrink their staffs.

No wonder burnout runs rampant among journalists of all stripes. 

With so many headwinds, what’s the recipe for success in breaking news successfully and accurately in today's media landscape?

Reimagine Your Workflows

Uncomfortable as it may be, it’s time for newsrooms to take a real look at their workflows. Any news media organization that is not structured to truly be digital first will continue to face an uphill climb. 

Reexamine every part of the workflow - from research and writing to editing and publishing. Create parallel paths for activities where possible. Ensure your workflows and processes are optimized for speed and accuracy. Then take them to the next level by optimizing for production of the type of content that impact your audience reach and engagement most. Social media posts containing video clips continue to drive higher engagement and have the benefit of providing the visual proof audiences demand. 

And seek out the self-proclaimed “workflow nerds” in your midst. We guarantee your organization has at least a couple of them. They can help by taking a more holistic look across your organization's processes while you stay focused on your next story. They will ensure you rethink your processes to maximize speed, accuracy, and efficiency, and help you find the right tools to get you there.

Augment Your Angle

Quantity of content is only one part of the equation. The sheer number of messages and news stories audiences see every day makes it challenging for digital journalists and social media managers to create content that truly sticks. In fact, it’s arguable that the angle a journalist brings to a story is more important now than ever. When every news outlet covers the same events, the content and quality of coverage determines who rises to the top and captures reader attention. 

By no means are we saying a quality angle negates the need for speed. You still have to be fast so you don’t miss out on riding the wave of a trending topic. However, the need to stand out among the noise does make a case for taking some time to carefully craft the messaging and context around a news artifact to provide the detail audiences desire.

Build a Searchable Digital Library

Right or wrong, certain topics have a tendency to stay in the news cycle, like high-profile public figures or global pandemics. Others at least rear their heads on a semi-regular basis, like wildfires, mass shootings, and corporate scandals. Shorten the timeline to finding the reference and fact-checking materials you need by building and maintaining a curated, searchable digital archive.

Sure, broad-based search engines may eventually help you find what you're looking for. Depending on how far back you're looking, it may be hit or miss whether the footage you need is still available. Curating your search universe to focus on your most-used sources saves precious minutes and allows you to be sure you're referencing reliable, accurate information. And we all know that when it comes to breaking news, every minute counts.

Curious how improvements like these look in practice? Check out our POLITICO case study. 

It’s official. Powerful audio and video moments can come from literally anywhere. We now know what a strong breeze sounds like on Mars. MARS. 

For the first time, we are able to see the moment a rover touches down on another planet. Not only could we actually view the landing of the Perseverance, getting to also hear the sounds at Jezero Crater brings the environment on the red planet to life.

As if we weren’t already creating enough video content here at home, now we’ve got it coming from other parts of the universe. (Which is incredibly cool and makes our nerd hearts smile). It begs the question - if we can see and hear Mars - what might we be missing? If we can get video footage of nearly anything, won’t we expect to see everything? Is there any boundary to the potential of visual (or audio) proof?

Endless Possibilities 

Video hasn’t yet hit its peak - and likely won’t for some time. Yes, consumers are spending 86% more time consuming digital video than they did just five years ago. However, in many digital channels we still see large year over year increases in video consumption. Twitter is still experiencing gains in video use and watch time among its users, with no signs of slowing down.

With the growth of video-driven platforms such as TikTok, and the ability for anyone to capture a newsworthy event on their cell phone, we’ve only scratched the surface of building a collective video library of epic proportions.

As video sources and consumption grow, two significant challenges emerge for digital content creators: 

Let’s quickly explore both and a few things to think about in addressing each one head on.

Find Video Gold by Reducing Your Search Area

Broad-based search engines give us access to the whole world. A few keywords can lead to discovering new worlds, new foods, new products, new people and more. It can actually be a bit mind boggling. It's why a quarter of users click the first Google search result and few venture beyond the first page. 

But if you really think about it, you probably have a handful of go-to sources. Those that you trust and continually go back to. Most people do, whether they are content creators, social media managers, or video journalists. 

So as you think about ways to minimize the growing noise to find key moments or clips, look for tools and solutions that allow you to create your own curated search engine. Start building a library of video moments from your most-used sources, the ones you can count on to drive engagement. That way, when you need to find video content quickly, the universe you're searching in is drastically smaller.

Clips, But Make It Contextual

The rules for video in social media channels vary. For advertisers, a viewer's attention span is exceptionally short. The average watch time per video ad on Facebook is currently around 10 seconds. And some marketers have found the greatest success with YouTube pre-roll ads that are no longer than eight seconds. 

For news, educational, and entertainment-based video content, the story is a bit different.

Digital journalists have plenty of room to use longer, more context-driven video to build trust in news content found in social media channels. According to the Pew Research Center, while half of Americans get news on social media sites at least sometimes, 60% of them expect the news they see in these channels to be inaccurate. Only three in 10 say it helps them understand current events. Using video as the basis for crafting well-rounded narratives can go a long way in closing these gaps.

Longer-form, more detailed, context-rich videos can also have a positive monetary impact. BuzzFeed has reportedly increased its Facebook Watch revenue by approximately 20% through production of more videos that are more than three minutes in length. When there is a real story to tell, and it is told well in a way that promotes understanding, viewers will engage.

Maybe a massive influx of video from outside the boundaries of Earth isn't imminent - yet. But now is the time for digital content creators to develop methodologies for quickly seeing through the noise to get to the video moments that deliver context, build great stories, and are truly out of this world.

Trial evidence can take many forms. Expert testimony. Eyewitness accounts. Documents and photos. Maybe even the occasional surveillance video. In light of the recent impeachment trial of Former President Donald J. Trump, it appears we may be entering a new era in the way cases are made and defended.

The video highlight reel.

Last week, both sides made extensive use of video clips to make their respective cases. In the days leading up to the trial, much was made about never-before-seen footage from inside the Capitol that would further the prosecution’s case. Congressional leaders used video moments taken during the insurrection of the Capitol alongside video clips of the speech the president was making on the Ellipse outside the White House that same day. In doing so, the prosecution used different types of video footage to provide context to the days and hours leading up to—and immediately following—the events of January 6.

Not to be outdone, the defense had its own clip montage prepared. 

Attorneys for Former President Trump showed highlights of various Democratic political figures using the word “fight” at events and in TV appearances in an attempt to demonstrate that the same rhetoric was being used on both sides of the aisle. Even news media weren’t exempt from inclusion in this (by many accounts) overly long compilation. Just ask CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

But so what? Based on the vote counts, it’s easy to dismiss the whole thing as political theater. Why does the reliance on video clips during the trial matter?

The answer is two-fold. Belief and context.

Seeing is Believing, Right?

We believe what we see. More than that, we rely on creating shared truths from the things we can see, document, and share with others. The widespread accessibility of video means we can share more moments with more people than at any other time in human history.

Without video proof, we wouldn’t get to collectively experience the joy of a child seeing his mother or father coming home from deployment. Or the terror of the first plane hitting the Twin Towers. And we certainly wouldn’t know that a police officer held his knee on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. 

Video gives us all the ability to see the moments we would otherwise miss.

But…(you knew there was a but coming, didn’t you?)

Just because we see the same thing, doesn’t mean we walk away with the same conclusions. While there is truth in the notion of believing what we see, it’s equally true that we see what we believe. Humans are naturally predisposed to confirmation bias. We give more weight to pieces of evidence that prove what we already believe to be true, regardless of whether it’s actually true. And this also pushes us to discard new evidence that flies in the face of our existing beliefs, particularly when emotionally charged issues are at hand. 

Which is precisely what Trump’s defense was relying on. That they could use video to tap into the inherent biases of enough of the Senate to get an acquittal. Their video didn’t have to convince so much as it just had to further prove what their intended audience already believed.

Content Isn’t King. Context Is.

This all begs the question - what’s the point of video proof? If we all just seek out our own echo chambers and bend evidence to match our existing beliefs, is visual storytelling equal to shouting into the ether?

Not when video clips are layered with other forms of coverage to create deep context. The footage of the siege on the Capitol could mean any number of things. That is, until it’s contextualized with tweets and statements from the president. And correlated with the timing of statements made leading up to and throughout the day of the insurrection. 

But all is in the eye of the beholder. Trump’s defense accused the prosecution of manipulating the various layers of information used to create context around the events of January 6. And then showed a lengthy reel of so-called evidence that was purposefully light on context to essentially demonstrate that  — since everyone is a guilty party—no one can actually be found guilty.

And that’s the duality of video moments. They can be used to both enhance and hinder understanding. But either way, video clips are the new shared language and how they’re placed in context becomes the most impactful part of an argument.

As our communications continue to become both more visual and more bite-sized, one’s ability to effortlessly thread video highlights into the discussion will become essential. This is true whether you’re trying to win a debate on Twitter or you’re trying to convict or acquit the (formerly) most powerful person in the world.