Video wallpaper

We're putting up wallpaper today. Wallpaper always looks spectacular when you first put it up, then as time goes by it fades into the background. In a year or two I won't even be able to tell you what it looks like, even though I'll see it every day.

Newscasts run the risk of being video wallpaper as well. When you look at the same thing day after day, you don't really "see" anymore. It fades into the background.

Doing the same stories every day creates video wallpaper for your newscast. If you are constantly chasing the scanner, running crime stories that affect no one, or talking to officials instead of people, you can send your viewers into a kind of hypnosis. Ever get to the end of a newscast (as a viewer, not a news person) and forget the stories you've just watched? That's video wallpaper.

Seen one car wreck, you've seen them all. Fires? Flames are flames. Same goes with crime. (Is there any video more boring than that associated with a bank robbery? A closed door with police tape. Riveting. Yet an anchor makes it sound like the end of the world.) Same with talking heads.

If you don't want to send your viewers into a hypnotic trance, you need to mix things up. Stop covering the things that always look the same, and dig up some real stories.

Oh yeah, this applies to resume tapes as well. If I see another resume tape that begins with a car wreck or a murder, well...

I forgot what I was going to say. Guess I went into a trance.