10 content formats everyone loved in 2020 (and you'll love it!)

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

They can be found in movies, online media, and social media. And you can try to create some formats yourself.

1. Interactive longread

A regular longread, that is, a large journalistic text, is a common format for many online publications. But interactive is rare. Such a longread is distinguished by a complex layout and a large number of multimedia inserts: video, photo galleries, audio files, infographics.

The starting point in the history of interactive longread is considered to be The New York Times, published in 2012, about 16 snowboarders and skiers trapped in a snow trap. The text is divided into six voluminous chapters and illustrated with video, infographics, photos and profiles of the heroes of the material.

Instagram launched the format in May 2020 specifically for verified mental health accounts. In the midst of a pandemic and a self-isolation regime, this was supposed to help people quickly find all the useful information. For example, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention account has a mental health account during COVID-19. And the British organization Heads Together - out of kindness.

In August, on Instagram, that the format will eventually become available to all users, and the collections will not necessarily be about mental health. In addition, the guides will allow you to recommend products or places of interest.

3. Instagram series

A full-fledged mini-series with a solid plot. Its peculiarity is that episodes are laid out on an Instagram profile. The first such project - Desert Friends - appeared in 2013. This series was about the adventures of three friends who are transported to a distant galaxy and are trying to return home to Palm Springs. Has 132 episodes of 15 seconds each.

The possibilities for creating a series on Instagram have increased since the launch of IGTV: the maximum video timing has increased from 1 to 20 minutes. An example of such content on IGTV is the six-episode show "", which was released by S7 airline in 2018.

Another new opportunity for the development of the format appeared in the fall of 2019: Instagram added an option "Series" to IGTV, which allows you to combine several videos into one playlist.

4. Screenlife

This is a movie storytelling format. In screen life, all the action takes place in a digital environment. All that the viewer sees is a display of the display of one computer, tablet or smartphone, captured using a screencast, that is, screen capture.

The first screen-life film, the horror film The Story of Collingswood, was released in 2002. The most famous example of screen life is the horror movie "Remove from Friends" in 2014.

The format gives a sense of presence, so it is most often used for horror or thrillers. But there are examples of screen life in other genres, for example, in drama (Face 2 Face) or comedy (16th episode of the sixth season of the sitcom "American Family" - "Connection Lost").

5. Game formats in Instagram Stories

Game stories often include stickers or stickers (poll, question, vote, test) or suggest direct responses. They are very popular on Instagram because they increase profile activity. Examples of game Stories:

• Find the differences … The user publishes two almost identical pictures and invites subscribers to reply in private messages how many differences they managed to find.
• Mini-quiz … The user asks a question and attaches the Test sticker with the choice of answers.
• This or that … The user publishes a collage of two photos or two stories with pictures in Stories and attaches the "Poll" sticker to select the first or second photo.

6. Masks with augmented reality (AR)

AR is a technology that allows you to add digital objects to the real world in a photo or video. It is used in medicine, education, and the gaming industry. In everyday life, AR is most often seen in masks on Instagram or TikTok.

• Decoration masks add makeup, wreaths, helmets, glasses.
• Mask tests randomly determine what kind of dog you are today or who you are from the characters are Potter.
• Quiz Masks also randomly give a question that the user needs to answer.
• Masks with 3D models add an animal, a fictional creature or a drawn person to the frame.

7. Story interviews, duets and other remote collaborations

Before, in order to make a joint video, bloggers had to meet. Now you can get by with remote collaboration using one of the following methods:

• Joint live stream on Instagram. With his help, interviews were often conducted during the self-isolation regime.
• Duets and reactions on TikTok. When recording a duet, the video is divided in half: on the one hand, the finished video of one blogger, on the other, the complementary video of the other. In reactions, everything is a little different: the content to which the response is recorded appears in a small window, and the blogger records the video as usual.
• Live video conferencing in Zoom or Skype. They can be streamed to YouTube or Facebook.

8. Online concert

Another format that became popular this spring after the introduction of the self-isolation regime. The musicians performed online concerts from their homes in live broadcasts on Instagram (for example, such were those of Leonid Agutin) or in broadcasts on YouTube and Yandex. Efire (also sitting at home or arriving at an empty studio). They even hosted online charity festivals, for example.

Now online concerts are held less often - in some countries, for example in Russia and Ukraine, artists have already begun to perform offline - but the format is still alive. On October 21, musician James Bay will host a full online concert at the Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London.

9. Online quiz

And this format became super popular during self-isolation, when mass events were banned, and all fans of quizzes were left without their favorite entertainment.

Offline quiz is a quiz in which teams of 2-10 people compete with each other, answering erudition or logic questions. It moved to the online format in the same form, the only exception is the number of players has become unlimited: you can answer questions at least one, even a group of 30 people.

Online quizzes can be paid or free. The latter are uploaded to YouTube:

• in stream format, for example "";
• in video format, for example.

10. Podcast

An audio blog or program that you can listen to online or download to your gadget. This format is a godsend for people who are constantly busy with something or spend a lot of time on the road: a podcast allows you to learn new useful information without being distracted by video or text.

The format is not new: it appeared at the beginning of the 2000s. A dedicated podcast section was added to iTunes in 2005. But in Russia they began to develop quite recently.

The theme, style, and timing of podcasts can be anything you want. Whether it's a five-minute audio about evolution or an hour-long talk about cinnamon rolls, there's content for everyone. Moreover, there are a lot of podcasts in audio libraries. Lifehacker also has his own - as many as 10. For example, "Caretaker" (about cinema), "Audio trainer" (about healthy lifestyle), podcast for girls "Burning hut" and, of course, the main audio show "Lifehacker's Podcast" (on various topics), which, by the way, already has more than 600 episodes … Promo

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