journalistic video example

Today I watched a story on abc.com entitled "Returning After Injury: A Bob Woodruff Update." The story was about a reporter who had been severely injured while on assignment in Iraq and had recently woken up from a 36-day coma. The story was uplifting, but definitely had a few weak spots. For instance, the first shot the viewer sees of Bob is in a hospital bed with a window behind him, washing him out. He's talking about how bad his scars are, but the lighting makes it very difficult to see the scar. A different angle would have been much better.

Another issue was the lack of titles underneath people giving interviews. From context clues I could deduce who Bob's wife was, but the other 2 interview subjects could have been anyone in the world.

The story spent quite a bit of time discussing how Bob's language center had been destroyed, but that doesn't mean much to the average person. I would have liked to see a picture of the brain scan compared to a normal brain so I could understand exactly what effects his injuries had on him longterm.

Despite these issues, certain aspects of the story really leant themselves to a video format. For instance, several scenes show Bob lying in his hospital bed playing with his young daughters. An especially touching moment shows the youngest daughter helping her father learn how to pronoune the word "diamond." She patiently repeats it over and over as he attempts to make the right sounds. A moment like that would have been very difficult to capture in print.

Additionally, the scene with Bob dancing with his wife while singing a song about how, even though he can't talk properly, he can still dance, was a great addition. It really humanized him and made him easy to relate to. Again, this wouldn't have been the same if the story was done in print.

-Jessica Ekhoff