Finding the correct angle to a news story can, at times, be a tough task, but this learned skill can often help reporters to identify hidden stories. Some of the stories may be obvious, but one may not have thought of it as a news story worth covering. However, after being put together as a video, the story comes to life and can be very interesting.

Presidents’ Struggle with Umbrellas

One such story was the CNN story on how US Presidents have struggled with their umbrellas. It ranges from how the current president’s struggle to close his umbrella to how a past president was courteous to his staff by holding the umbrella. On seeing one such struggle, the reporter may have thought of the idea, but then it would have required some time in the library to get required archival footage. The result was a fantastic piece.

Links to this and other stories are mentioned at the end of this blog post.

Impact of Hong Kong Protests on Teenagers

On a serious note the Hong Kong protests have been of concern to many. The channels have covered the violence from different angles. One of the stories that caught my attention, thanks to the lateral thinking by the reporter, was how this event is affecting the psyche of the teenagers there. The BBC report claims that the current protests are bound to leave a long-term impact in the minds of the students.

WhatsApp Privacy Worry

Moving on, how smartphone users were spied using an app called Pegasus on the device was covered extensively in the media. The obvious question was how to protect yourself against this privacy breach. Telling the audience about this was a story that many videos would have tried to attempt. But demonstrating it in a practical step by step method was done by only a few news channels. The News18 channel attempted one such.

“The Medium is the Message

A connected thought was about the impact created by different media. It is a subject of study for media students, but now it has started impacting the common public and hence worth looking into. The aphorism by Canadian communication theorist and educator, “the medium is the message”, continues to apply even in this digital era. As a tribute, Al-Jazeera has come up with an interesting video. As usual, take a look at the story in the link provided below.

CNN’s Umbrella story: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/12/03/trump-melania-umbrella-moos-ebof-vpx.cnn

BBC Hong Kong Story: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-50654667/hong-kong-protests-teenage-protesters-grappling-with-collective-trauma

News 18 on WhatsApp: https://www.news18.com/videos/ivideos/whatsapp-and-privacy-you-must-check-out-these-settings-on-your-phone-2-2386427.html

Al Jazeera story on Marshall Mcluhan: https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/media-theorised/2019/10/marshall-mcluhan-medium-message-191031081114119.html