1. Introduction
With the development of the times and the continuous improvement of the level of science and technology, mobile Internet and information communication technology are also updated and iterated, and the consequential a diversified media, diversified forms of communication of the environment. People are no longer limited to obtaining information from the traditional paper media, but rely on the Internet platform to obtain the information they need through more ways. In this context, the new media was born, that is, after newspapers, radio and television, the emergence of the fourth and fifth media: Internet media and mobile media [1].
At the same time, the emergence of new media has inevitably brought changes to the news industry. New media news is a new concept. Network news is mainly transmitted through the Internet, but also edited and interacted through the Internet. According to different network platforms, new media news also contains many different communication channels. As the main information transmission carrier in the new media era, video is also the main source of information received by contemporary Internet users. According to the statistics of China Internet Network Information Center, by March 2020, the number of Internet users in China has reached 904 million, and the Internet penetration rate in China has reached 64.5% [2].
When it comes to new media, it is inevitable to mention short video, short videos as an important part of the new media. Compared to the other ways, the way of the video spreads is even more popular. At the same time, short video can use its social and mobile characteristics to provide key news information to the audience in a short time, and compared with traditional paper media, The news dissemination of short videos has the characteristics of more vivid and flexible dissemination mode, and can meet the needs of people's fragmented information reception today, which makes it gradually occupy an increasingly important position in new media news.
But at the same time, there is a huge amount of information on the new media short video platform. Moreover, the platform has a very broad openness, which is different from the situation that only news organizations can publish news in the traditional mode. So that anyone can arbitrarily publish news on the platform that is hard to distinguish between true or fake and has different positions. False news is especially common on the new media short video platform [1].
And short videos, as the name suggests, means a short time video, people will constantly through the different news, it will takes up or even wastes people a lot of time and energy. At the same time, when people indulge in short videos, they will be affected by personal emotions or non-neutral content, so people will be affected involuntary, and make people lose the ability to cogitate and distinguish judgment about short video news.
In a word, with the continuous development of new media platforms, short video news plays an increasingly important role in news communication, so the advantages and disadvantages of short video in news communication will also become a problem worth talking about. Therefore, for this paper, we will discuss the current situation, advantages and disadvantages of short video for news communication.
2. Literature About Short Video
Short video news is a new thing after all, so the traditional press does not have a more authoritative and complete definition of it. From the perspective of news carrier and communication mode, short video news can be defined as "taking the short video software with social attributes as the carrier of news information, So as to realize the news products of "spreading on the mobile social platform" [3].and Wu Meijun emphasized the "short" characteristic, and proposed that the short video news should have the characteristics of "short and refined, short and beautiful, short and fast, and short and wide" [4] but the way of combining news with short video for news reporting has a long history. In 2012, Kenneth Lyell of the United States created a mobile news service application called “nowthisnews”. In 2013, a Turkish journalist used vine to record a suicide bombing attack at the US embassy in Turkey [5]. so for short video news, we need to understand and analyze it from different times and angles.
For the advantages of short video for news communication, people have done a lot of research. Short video is not limited to the traditional communication mode for news dissemination, but makes full use of the existing we media platform for communication, and develops official micro blog, wechat public account, shaking tone, quick hand, etc., which can widely improve people's contact with news, it reflects the efficiency, interactivity and diversification of short video for news communication [6], and the characteristics of simple acquisition, rapid output and rapid sharing of short video make it appear on the network with extremely fast speed and a very large number. This is of great significance to the development and influence of news communication. At the same time, the emergence of short video has changed the mode of mass communication from "for the masses" to "from the masses" [7]. Similarly, the combination of short video and news communication can promote positive energy and excellent culture, It can improve the situation that the short video itself has excessive entertainment and the news information is not correct. And the short video news optimizes the process of news output, making the news release no longer rigid and rigid [8]. The communication characteristics of short video make it has great advantages for sudden news. Journalists may miss some fleeting news scenes. However, short video enables people to share the news scene in the network by using their intelligent devices, which greatly improves the timeliness of news [9]. Provides a lot of material for traditional news and makes up for the limitations of traditional media in reporting unexpected news [10].
But at the same time, the combination of short video and news may cause problems in the definition of news, which may deviate from the traditional understanding of news [11]. At the same time, short video news is easy to make hot news because of its large public discourse space,The rapid fermentation and wide spread of sensitive news make it become the focus of public opinion. If the wind direction is wrong, it may threaten the stability of public opinion [12]. At the same time, it may lead to the audience's imitation effect and produce public opinion crisis [10].
3. Current Situation and Development of Short Video
According to the data of China Internet Development Statistics Report released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of June 2020, the number of online video (including short video) users in China reached 888 million, accounting for 94.5% of the total netizens, among which short video has become a new choice for news reports and a new standard for e-commerce platforms. The number of online news users is 725 million, accounting for 77.1% of the total netizens [13]. According to the statistics of QuestMobile, the monthly active users in Tik Tok reached 518 million in March 2020. The number of monthly active users in Aauto Quicker reached 443 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.4%; The number of monthly active users in bilibili reached 121 million, a year-on-year increase of 32%; Short videos are getting more and more attention from the audience, and the number of users is increasing. Therefore, it is not difficult to see, in today's era, short video has become a point that cannot be ignored, become an increasingly important part of people's life, and after people explore the form of short video, gradually found the news and short video for the news communication method, and the result is considerable. For this reason, major traditional media have joined the ranks of short video, combining traditional news with short video, the scale of development of new media short video is expanding. Gradually, short video news has a general definition, and that is the news means that most of the time is controlled at about 5 minutes, and it is produced and edited by the mobile phone platform. News products that can be spread on short video platforms or social platforms. Since 2017, People's Daily, Beijing News, The Paper and other traditional media have joined the team of short video news, and opened short video news accounts to present news in the form of short videos. By December 7th, 2020, People's Daily had received a total of 5.52 billion praises. The number of fans is 120 million; However, CCTV, the traditional news giant, is not to be outdone, with a total of 38.7 billion praises and 110 million fans. Presenting news in the form of short videos not only enriches the presentation forms of news, but also adapts to the development of the times and enhances the communication power of news media. However, due to the length of short video, the content of short video news production is fragmented, and it is difficult for people to understand the whole process of a news event and the influence of the reasons behind it.
For short video news, there is also the characteristic of personalized news distribution, on different short video platforms, there are also different communication methods and news content priorities. Different from traditional media, short video news can not only give news new forms of expression and creative techniques to attract more different types of audiences，and with the short video platform, Traditional media are more able to re-create news from different directions, different audiences and different angles to form a new form of news with different styles, in order to broaden the audience audience and spread scope of the channel among which the best one is CCTV's "The anchor said that the network is broadcast". According to the statistics of Tik Tok, this column alone has won hundreds of millions of praises.
But it also have something short video news which not belong to the traditional news media output, for these kinds of news’s producer are most is not received the relevant professional education, but out of hobbies or interests by the line about the work of the staff, and their output have low threshold, untruthfulness, attract person eyes to conflict problems.
4. Benefits of Short Video News
Great changes have taken place in today's Internet age, and news dissemination is accompanied by revolutionary changes. The combination of short videos based on different types of information with different characteristics makes short videos one of the important media forms in today's era, and its main advantages lie in the following aspects:
4.1. Spread Speed
Let's take the traditional live TV news broadcast as an example. A live TV broadcast needs high cost and complicated process. However, the short video of new media is the opposite. As long as there is a mobile phone and a smooth network, the current events can be broadcast live, which shows that the communication efficiency of new media is higher and the communication cost is lower. And with the help of the Internet, especially with the continuous improvement of the mobile Internet construction today, the coverage of short videos began to expand continuously. With a smart phone, you can upload and share news information through the Internet. The "newness" of news is also a major feature of news. The rapid spread ensures the timeliness of short video news. And when news transmission depends on the short video, news is given with the short spread’s "viral" characteristics, short video news can spread in a short period of time to attract a specific audience, the first audience will take a second broadcasting, and secondary transmission of wider and higher efficiency, so again and again, make the short video news can have the speed of hundreds of traditional news.
4.2. Rich and Attractive Communication Content
Short video news integrates information symbols such as words, sounds and images for news dissemination, breaking the boundaries of different combinations with traditional media, making news expression more diversified, which is a great progress of news dissemination, enabling the audience to get more information in audio-visual aspects at the same time. And the content segmentation of short video news clearly has certain themes and bright features. Moreover, short video news can also make use of the latest science and technology, such as "big data", which is well known to us, and can push news according to the audience's personal preferences. Moreover, the threshold of short video news is lower than the traditional news, and it does not need to have professional knowledge and accept relevant audit like the traditional media. Anyone can create what they like, at the same time to create more colorful and more people-friendly news content.
4.3. Interaction of News
Under the background of network, the relationship between news disseminators and readers has changed. The audience is not only the receiver of news information, but also can produce the news and become the editor and creators according to their own ideas at the same time. Correspondingly, news writers can also get news materials according to feedback from the audience. Secondly, Compared with the traditional news media's emphasis on ways and news communication process, the new media's news information generation and communication mode are more free, also the range of communication is wider, which can have a greater impact on people's views. And in this day and age, The relationship between the subject and audience of news public opinion expression can be transformed into each other, and everyone has the pattern to speak and the channel to speak. When the News are disposed through these ways in the processing, the details of the news will be constantly discovered and perfect, and different from the traditional media that without subsequent of the news, short video news can let everyone to discover, to make the audience participation feeling stronger and can see the results of their activities also including what happened in the end of some news.
We can make use of these advantages of short videos to optimize and reform traditional media. Traditional news media organizations should make use of their own advantages, and try to learn the rules of each different media platform, to open their own new media account, constantly to change their inherent image mining new audience at the same time, which can also be a useful supplement for traditional media such as TV and newspapers.
5. The Incongruity of Short Video and News
The beneficial influence of short video on news and its value are worthy of people's affirmation, but the combination of the two also brings many negative effects, which also need us to look directly at and face.
5.1. Fragmentation of News Content
As for the carrier of new media, the news information covered in it is very huge and rich in content, which means that users will receive a large amount of fresh information every day, and people will be in a living state of accepting information overload. The most obvious performance is that the content of new media platforms such as Tik Tok, Kwai and Weibo is endless for people, and the news information on these platforms is constantly changing. Although this allows people to get the latest news anytime, anywhere and roam in the news ocean, But also will make people dazzled and confused in front of all kinds of news.
And due to the time limit of short videos, news information is often compressed and deleted, which makes the news content incomplete and makes the news details scarce. Only few minutes to explain the news, is more used to tell what have happened, and it is really difficult to tell the news events well in a few minutes.
The strong "specialization" and "technical advantages" of traditional media can be integrated with the fragments of new media and improved. Traditional media can make use of their professional advantages and news thickness to express news better in just a few minutes, so that the audience can get as much news content as possible in the fragment time.
Although users can learn the details about this news by watching more related videos, it is not only the news that is fragmented, but also the viewing habits of users. At the same time, this will lead to the next problem.
5.2. The "Information Cocoon Room"
Compared with the traditional media, the previous news dissemination mode, such as newspapers and news programs, is for all audiences, and people all watch the same newspaper and program. These news are screened and approved, and their contents include social news, people's livelihood news, international news, etc. People can pay attention to different hot events. In today's new media, although the whole platform contains all kinds of news, but now users choose news, people will search and learn about the news according to their own preferences and interests. In turn, the new media will filter the pushed news information according to users' preferences, and over time, it will form a "personal" daily newspaper. Will form a news circle, news barriers, people will only know the news information in their own "house", and their vision will gradually become narrow and shallow.
The entry of traditional media can greatly improve this situation. Traditional media have specialized journalists who can receive all kinds of news every day. When traditional media enter the short video platform of new media, they can use their own advantages and fame to push different news. People will also pay attention to different content and types of news because of the fame of traditional media.
5.3. False News' Population
In the previous news production process, news needed to go through systematic procedures such as professional journalists and professional editors, so as to ensure the authenticity and authority of news. However, in the new media platform, everyone can participate in creation, and there is no threshold for users with different occupations and different educational levels to produce news, and the source of news information cannot be verified. This makes it possible for different news producers to report the same news event with different contents and different positions.
This may be mixed with rumors, personal opinions, false news and so on. This will lead to some news events that need to be discussed and the truth is not clear, which will be more confusing and cause more quarrels. It will also cause some users with low judgment on the platform to be interfered and led by others opinions, making the truth farther and farther away from people, When the real truth comes out, the authority of the news will be greatly reduced.
Moreover, short video news tends to make some sensitive news events become the focus of public opinion at a "viral" speed, and all kinds of so-called "truth" and "inside story" and the final reverse news will have a negative impact on public opinion.
The addition of traditional media will be the biggest guarantee for the authenticity of news. Just like the recent MU5735 incident, there are many online discussions, such as "China Eastern Airlines caused a mountain fire" and "China Eastern Airlines suffered tens of billions of losses, which reduced the cost of aircraft maintenance". However, when CCTV came forward to refute the rumor, some voices disappeared. Traditional media can produce authentic news through their own accumulated news authority and professionalism, and act as a bellwether of news events, guiding the correct news direction and improving bad atmosphere which the news have bring.
6. Conclusion
All in all, in today's era, the combination of news and short videos has become an inevitable process, and new media is an indispensable part of people's lives today, and the advantages of new media can guarantee the timeliness of news, just like the Tianjin Port bombing at that time. CCTV's news reports facilitate the use of video materials taken by people on the spot in Weibo; At the same time, news with more pictures and video elements as the carrier is more dynamic, which can increase the interest and diversity of news, thus making people more interested in news, paying more attention to news, and greatly improving the interaction between people and news. You can actively interact with the news.
Our traditional media also needs to keep pace with the times and strengthen the connection with new media. Under the background of "media integration", traditional media need to learn and integrate the advantages of short videos, change the old ideas and concepts, constantly update the news content and form, and use the new media platform to better broaden the channels of news dissemination. And make use of their professional advantages and accumulated reputation and prestige for a long time to produce high-quality news. At the same time, they should abandon the shortcomings of short videos, adhere to the attitude of truthful news content, responsible news conclusions and comprehensive news reports, and improve the news atmosphere on the Internet.
The same is true for the personal news creators of new media. They should know the basic news attributes, respect the basic rules of communication and ensure the most basic requirements of news, so as not to spread false, plagiarized and inferior news with only personal opinions.
Therefore, making full use of the advantages of short video of new media can effectively make up for the problems from traditional media of time and space that cannot be overcome and how to get the fast and fresh sources of news information, providing a new way to continuously and effectively produce high-quality short video news works. When new media and news are combined in a better form, news will be spread in a faster and better way, which will be a very meaningful and win-win thing for both new media and news itself.