Video

NewscastStudio complements and expands its reporting through the use of video, most of which is taken directly from the feeds of various networks and TV stations and posted to our popular YouTube channel.

It’s important to understand that our video clips are not meant to replicate a broadcast and its content but rather to showcase production values including set design, music, shot blocking, graphics and more.

Here’s a quick look at some notes about our video and the editorial guidelines we follow:

  • In general, we try to keep videos as close to how they aired as possible.
  • However, our video clips are typically not designed to be exact reproductions of the segments as they aired and in order to emphasize the visual and storytelling aspects of coverage and also respect the copyright owner, we often will purposefully edit out the full content of the report itself. You may notice that clips fade out in the middle of sentences or right before someone begins talking, which is by design. This is done to both focus your attention on the parts of the video clips we refer to and prevent our videos from being a way to “watch” a program.
  • The one exception to this is TV promos, which are shown in their entirety.
  • In general, we try to either add a “fade out” of the audio or a brief black screen to signify that time has elapsed between edits. If a segment features a fade to black, we typically leave that in.
  • We generally do not include commercial breaks unless it is relevant to the reporting.
  • In rare cases, such as with people of notoriety, we will blur out faces even if the network or station does not do that, but this is always noted in the description of the video.
  • We generally do not edit out profanity or other harsh language unless it is not relevant to our reporting. 
  • We also do not edit out “objectionable” content — but do attempt to provide a warning of it in the video description. 
  • In some cases, select portions of a clip may be muted due to licensing restrictions on the audio — such as with music. This is noted where possible in the description.
  • For very short clips, we often will repeat the clip several times in order to make it easier to watch the clip. In these cases, we will typically identify it as a “loop” of the video in the description and separate each repetition by black.
  • We credit, via a watermark, the original source of the video whenever possible.
  • If you want to watch the full version of a show or segment featured, please visit the official broadcaster site or appropriate streaming service to obtain a full licensed version of the broadcast.

Also, we frequently get questions about why we do not allow commenting on our videos via YouTube’s commenting system. Here’s why:

  • First and foremost, our videos are meant to emphasize television news production values and storytelling but are not mean to be about the show, event or story in the report itself. For example, our clips may show how a network or TV station reports on a hurricane, but are not meant to provide coverage of the hurricane itself. Therefore, comments about local response and forecasting miscalls are not relevant to our videos. 
  • Because many of our videos involve politics, breaking news and, unfortunately, tragic events, we do not wish to make our videos a source of criticism or comments from either side of an issue or event when the point is to spotlight broadcast production values. 
  • While we would like to be able to open comments on YouTube for interested parties to discuss the presentation and storytelling, our experience has shown that these comments are quickly buried by a variety of other comments that are not relevant to our reporting (including spam). This is too difficult to moderate and often these comments become overrun with negativity and even offensive language, so we have opted to turn comments off on almost all of our videos.
  • If you would like to comment on a video clip’s storytelling or production values, we encourage you to tweet @newscaststudio on Twitter. Feel free to include a link to the video you’re commenting on in your post. You can grab the link by clicking the “Share” link on the YouTube page and copying the like provided, which always starts with “https://youtu.be/.” You can also visit our Facebook page and locate the post linking to the story in question.
  • Please note that comments made via Twitter and Facebook should still focus on production values or storytelling — and not the issue at hand. Comments that include opinions about the news or topic in the clip may be removed or hidden and comments with offensive or inaccurate claims will be reported to the appropriate platform. 

If you are a copyright holder of content we have posted, please note the following:

  • NewscastStudio is a trade publication devoted to the broadcast and industry and regularly provides commentary and reporting on graphics, sets, music and other aspects of broadcast storytelling. 
  • Our clips do not contain the full content of your program. In fact, we usually attempt to edit our clips in such a way to purposefully put the focus on production values and not the content of the broadcast. We often will purposefully “cut off” clips in the middle of sentences or scenes so that our clips are not viable “replacements” for your official clips. In other words, it would be difficult for someone to watch our clips and still follow the story or content being presented. 
  • We consider our usage to be under the “fair use” exception of U.S. copyright law, in particular the exemption for news and commentary. 
  • Because our clips are edited and truncated, this significantly reduces both the amount of copyrighted material we show and the potential of it as a viable replacement for watching the show on your official platforms. 
  • The one exception is TV and news promos, because these, by their very nature, need to be seen in their entirety. However, because these are designed to promote your programming, this meets the fair use guidelines for “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” Because TV promos, by definition, are designed to promote programming, our use of them in full has no damage to their value and may, in fact, bring additional value to copyright holders by further promoting the programming in question. 
  • We do not claim copyright of your clips nor do we modify your clips in misleading ways. 
  • Whenever possible, we credit clips to the appropriate holder using a “baked in,” permanent watermark.