This week, the future of the news became a little clearer.
On Tuesday, the mobile-based social media giant Snapchat announced the launch of its Discover feature. Partnering with 11 media groups including CNN, ESPN, Yahoo! News and National Geographic, Snapchat uses Discover to deliver news packages.
It’s brilliant.
We’ll admit it: We felt a little sadness when we heard the news. Does this mean our future as journalists will consist of producing content for an application that every American teenager can’t pull themselves away from? Maybe. But after some introspection, we’re going to stop complaining.
News content is finally coming to a platform where people are again. Too many American newspapers are losing readers. Simply posting links to stories on the news outlet’s social media account doesn’t even seem like enough anymore.
But now there’s news on Snapchat, and it actually uses long-standing news organizations to do what they do best.
The Discover feature gives you the option to click on one of the 10 media groups to view their content. Most outlets divide the sections into about six stories, each with a colorful introduction that sums up what the following story is going to be about. CNN plays funky music and graphics accompanying a sentence-long description. Yahoo! News has Katie Couric narrate.
The stories come in a variety of different platforms. Sometimes they are in the form of a video, but most of the time they are written stories. Being in the business of the written word, we’re happy to see that it isn’t about to die.
Some things are going to take some getting used to. CNN seems to be taking its role of engaging with the audience seriously by being, well, rather unserious. On Thursday, CNN interviewed Rand Paul, and this was actually a historic interview. It was the first Snapchat interview with a U.S. lawmaker.
While the interview discussed serious topics—drones and Ron Paul’s run for the U.S. presidency in 2016—it seemed almost flippant. Paul played along.
“Drones should only be used according to the Constitution, but if they fly over my house, they better beware ’cause I’ve got a shotgun,” he joked in the introduction.
The journalist also asked questions in a flippant manner, as if she hoped to make a joke. It’s the first time we’ve seen an outlet that purports to deliver serious news be light-hearted. But maybe that’s what it will take to reach Snapchat enthusiasts.
Most of the content was gripping. CNN provided a tightly written story on the Russian spy suspects caught by the FBI in New York. National Geographic gave a stunning video of how a jaguar attacks its prey—a crocodile. Food Network offered a recipe for buffalo cauliflower with blue cheese sauce. There are even channels that allow you to keep up with the latest celebrity gossip. The future of the media has arrived, folks.
There are still issues to address. Today’s news stories will disappear after 24 hours. It’s unclear how they will be archived. That makes research difficult for future generations.
Snapchat has become something of value now. Smart phone users, we recommend you download it, if only to check out the Discover feature.
