Text or video, today's journalism debate

Last Monday we had the presence of Paul Kirby, a renowned editor of BBC News, who explained to us why the use of text or video is preferred to tell a certain story. When the news is more complex, many times the use of text helps a better understanding by the public, however when you have really good images of a story it is preferable to opt for the video. However, on many occasions the video or the images are necessary for their help to accompany the news but Paul Kirby explains how the best way to do it is through text accompanied by images.

BBC's podcast cover page

As for podcasts, they are a tool whose use is becoming more and more frequent, we all know someone who listens to the morning news while going to university or who invests their time in listening to podcasts of things of interest. BBC News has an entry within its website dedicated to podcasts, which presents news from different categories as well as a podcast with the latest news from the coronavirus, within this page you can also find different videos on various topics of general interest. Although Paul Kirby is not something in which he is personally involved, he told us how many of his colleagues who work in the radio part dedicate themselves to it.

For this reason, as to whether the use of text or video is preferable for a story, it is mainly necessary to have the need to tell that story. This issue is very present within the media since it is a decision that they have to make every day at all hours since depending on the news and its complexity to be told, one format or another will be chosen.