Can Video Journalism Save Online Newspaper Readership?

Dr. Ian Lang

Quality video journalism combined with text offers stories increased depth and can add months of published life to a text article that may otherwise be forgotten in days, according to Ian Lang, an award-winning television producer, on-line video journalist and developer of e-learning curricula.

Lang’s experience at The Australian newspaper suggests that the development of journalists with micro-documentary skills could lift readership and potentially shift advertising from television to on-line news sites.

However, Lang, who will be speaking at HKU’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre on 16 September, argues that skilfully produced short documentaries are poorly understood by newsrooms and by journalists themselves.

About the Speaker

Ian Lang is an Honorary Professor of International Digital Studies at Melbourne University, head of the Victorian College of Arts there, and the winner of the university’s 2012 Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence in Educational Programs.

He is also founding head of Australia’s Griffith Film School, and serves as an external curriculum advisor for Asian institutions including the Beijing Film Academy, Hong Kong University SPACE, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore.

He is an active media producer, with over 20 documentaries to his credit.