Video news releases provide journalists with the visuals and sound they need to create a news story. They contain interview segments and b-roll (coverage footage), which enable them to present your announcement or news in their own way. The video news release is typically a maximum of five minutes and should include natural sound from interviews with key spokespeople. VNRs are usually distributed by a VNR firm, such as Medialink, which distributes about a thousand VNRs per year.
A common strategy is to focus on one person or issue, with a clear theme and narrative. This is the approach taken by some news organizations, including CNN and the BBC. More recently, independent YouTube news channels have also adopted this approach. These channels often have a host, who speaks directly into the camera about a specific topic.
Our analysis found that, on average, about two-thirds of all videos in our sample focused on a single subject. The most common focus was on President Trump, with a quarter of videos about him focusing on his impeachment proceedings or other aspects of his administration. Other popular subjects included the QAnon conspiracy theories (14% of independent videos) and Democratic members of Congress (12%).
In general, videos that were negative in tone drew more views than those that were positive. However, the positive videos tended to be shorter than the negative ones, which may account for some of this difference in viewership. Similarly, negative channels tended to be more likely than positive ones to cite sources, such as government agencies or private organizations, while positive videos were less likely to do so.