The BBC is testing a new way of distributing short news items via a new service called Instafax which uses Instagram to share videos and other information about news events, in a bid that they can be easily consumed by people on the go.
The experimental service looks to only have taken its fledgling steps online today, and provides short, concise summaries of the most salient facts of complex news stories in an easy-to-understand way. Naturally, it also encourages viewers to read the full story on the BBC’s website.
You can see the first Instafax from the BBC News team below, clicking through to the post on Instagram reveals a little more information in the description of the video:
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The BBC isn’t the very first to try disseminating news in this way, NowThisNews has also been playing around with it, but it’s obviously one of the biggest, and has a massive potential audience.
In the past few years the way that people have consumed news has changed dramatically, moving away from long-form and towards content that’s easier to view on mobile devices and tablets, as well as multimedia rich. As such, it’s good to see the BBC giving extra attention to worthy-but-complex stories in a bid to help more people understand exactly what is going on.
Featured Image Credit – NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images
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