

One day, all news will look like this - bensummers
http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/2010/06/07/one-day-all-news-will-look-like-this/

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ErrantX
I can't figure out if this article is in support of it happening or not...

He's probably right this will start to creep in. I completely hate it. None of
the videos are at all accurate or particularly ethical. They all tip right
over in sensationalism and bad journalism.

Besides; we already use animations on western news - for legitimate things
(like the oil leak). Dramatizing events we don't know about? Bad idea.

~~~
stcredzero
Artist renditions of news events have been published in newspapers for a very
long time. I know this has been happening in Japan since the 1800's. I suspect
this has been happening in the Anericas since the 1700's. What's new here? Is
it the risk of photorealistic fabrications?

~~~
ErrantX
Obviously enriching reportage with graphics/animations is a good thing.

It's this specific sort that I dislike; badly researched and, essentially,
fiction made for mass consumption (and feed our voyeuristic needs :)).

Don't get me wrong; if they did the proper research into all of those things
and showed a realistic interpretation (the sinking boat, for me, was the
closest to this) then good, that's enriching.

But I suspect it won't happen like that... :(

~~~
stcredzero
Probably the majority of the renditions in the Old Japanese papers were
voyeuristic. It sells papers. Too bad supporting democracy throughh an
informed public isn't as directly connected with profit.

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mikecane
This will unfortunately happen. I'm old enough to remember the first time
"simulations" were used in news programs and there was an uproar over the
ethics of doing that. Now, they don't even label something as "simulation" or
"dramatization" or "re-creation." Thus news bleeds into entertainment which
bleeds into news ... and Neil Postman spins in his grave.

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india
This is a very worrying trend. Consider this one from India -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtDb_vLZ0wc> I find it wrong on many levels.
It is a drastic oversimplification of the events of the day and in some sense,
implicitly portrays the pilot's job as something the newscaster could have
done better.

News media has so far been vastly deficient in how they present technical and
scientific matters and stuff like this will only exaggerate that problem.

~~~
iamdave
For what it's worth, some newscasters present reports about certain events
with a tone of voice as if they could have done it better themselves, without
the aid of an animation. Sometimes it's hard to tell if newscasters are
reporting the news, or chiding and scolding the individuals being reported on
for human error.

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lotharbot
This is one side of the coin -- it's getting easier to fabricate news.

The other side of the coin is that it's easier for people who spot
fabrications to spread the word on popular blogs and such. When 60 minutes
broke a story on what were supposed to be memos about a politician from the
1970s, bloggers who thought they looked suspiciously like they were typed in
MS Word (and not on a typewriter) were able to link up with typography
experts, do some solid analysis, and force CBS to issue a correction/apology.
I've seen several bits of photoshopped "news" coverage exposed in recent
years.

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a1k0n
The best one is the Conan/Leno story:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y04H5mFUFM>

~~~
ekanes
Two thoughts.

a) Personally, I found that really informative, as well as entertaining. I
didn't know the backstory of their feud.

b) I (still) have no idea if it's 100% true.

Yep, we'll probably see more of this.

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dminor
"...as shown in this dramatic _imaginactment_." -- Stephen Colbert on the
Daily Show several years back.

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krevis
Not as new as you'd think. CNET did this 15 years ago, when they were just
starting up. They ran an animation of how O.J. Simpson supposedly committed
the murders:
[http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/spirit_trouts/mnookin/simpson....](http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/spirit_trouts/mnookin/simpson.html)

Incredibly tasteless. This is still the first thing that comes to mind when I
see the name CNET, although I'm sure nobody else even remembers it.

~~~
jcl
Not as new as _you'd_ think, either: In 1918, animation pioneer Winsor McCay
created the silent short film "The Sinking of the Lusitania", showing the RMS
Lusitania being torpedoed by German U-boats. With remarkably realistic
drawings, the film was presented as a documentary, but the visuals were
imagined, based on verbal accounts and supposition. It functioned largely as a
propaganda piece to increase anti-German sentiment during WWI.

The simulated sinking of the Korean ship in the article has nothing on this.
:)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sinking_of_the_Lusitania>

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=ES&hl=es&v=nN-
KdPBhy...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=ES&hl=es&v=nN-KdPBhyjc)

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hugh3
I did get a good laugh out of the Gordon Brown video. At around the 0:40 mark
he punches some guy out in the corridor then throws a woman out of a chair and
onto the floor, both accompanied by sound effects.

I'm not too worried by the idea that one day all news will look like this,
though. These sort of animations are always going to be labour-intensive.

~~~
nerme
What is labour intensive now is going to be rather easy to do in twenty years.

Just think of some sort of Machinima based "gaming" program. Have your basic
set of gestures for the actors, write up a little script, have someone control
a camera, some voice-to-mouth animation.

Forget about twenty years from now, you could probably rattle off something in
an hour or two with a modified game engine.

~~~
DrSprout
Or six years ago if you're willing to take some artistic liberties:

[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-22-2004/crash-
at...](http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-22-2004/crash-at-my-place)

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throw_away
these look like some of the bumps that occasionally air on adult swim. I
assume now that they are creating their own in the same style for laughs:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0QTaM-
mo4&feature=chann...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0QTaM-
mo4&feature=channel)

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Tarski
Somehow I can't see the BBC adopting this approach anytime soon...

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Oxryly
Inside Edition, Hard Copy, A Current Affair...

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moskie
The Running Man.

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xster
lol, the brown video is actually well done

