The Future of News: TikTok or Netflix

There is a great deal of concern, well placed, that few people under the age of 30 watch TV news.

Viewership of TV news in general has fallen off, so naturally, TV executives across the boards are searching for a solution. How to appeal to a demographic that spends most of their time on social media?

Two solutions have emerged — One, is to emulate TikTok — short videos, shot on a phone- cheap but hopefully entertaining, and even more hopefully carrying a bit of journalism buried in there, somewhere.

Here’s another solution — the opposite end of the spectrum — Netflix. Much deeper, character-driven storytelling — also shot with an iPhone.

Here then are two examples of the same story done in two ways — TikTok vs. Netflix. You decide which you prefer.

The first story was done by NBC network news.

The second by Taylor Schaub, an MMJ with Spectrum News 1 in LA (and a bootcamp grad). This was his very first video story, and it was nominated for an Emmy.