Today Tonight YouTube Concept
How can independent media join the all-important evening news hour?
The Idea
There’s a huge gap in the market for an independent media show during the evening news hour. Who can best fit that slot and how?
Common Dreams
One organization that most represents the high standards of an independent journalistic organization is Common Dreams. Common Dreams is a non-profit independent newscenter created in 1997 as a new media model.
“Common Dreams is a daily, glorious taste of what the dominant media could be if it was shaped by our common dreams of justice and peace.”
— Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
What’s the plan?
Taking a page out of another successful independent media, Democracy Now!, and implement their YouTube structure for the evening news hour segment. Create a 20–30 minutes show that reviews or recaps the daily news that’s uploaded around 6 PM EST. In addition to the main show, add 5–10 minutes segments that go further in-depth into few articles.
Concept Designs
Keep the show well lit and airy with a minimal color scheme. I would recommend sticking with white and the dark blue from the Common Dreams logo. The advantage during the corona pandemic is the lack of needing an actual studio. ‘News Hour’ at PBS during the pandemic is a good example to model. Create a name for the new show, which I conceptually call ‘Today Tonight with Amy Walter’. The name should be very apparent to its content and time. The name of the show is placed at the bottom left. For familiarity and integrity, place the trusted ‘Common Dreams’ transparent logo at the bottom right along with the ‘Subscribe’ button.
The title bars has been designed with the least amount of distractions to the viewer with the most amount of impact. The blue bar at the bottom gives a sense of weight and foundation to the title bars. The top main title bar is pure white with the same font and size as the show logo. The secondary title bar is white with a bit of transparency to give it a hint of depth and hierarchy to the information. It has been shortened a bit from the main title bar to compliment the channel logo on the right, while furthering the illusion of depth.
Final thoughts
I very much enjoyed this concept design project because I genuinely believe in the fight for the underdog. My kindergarten daughter is currently learning about engineers in science and the concept of finding problems and thinking of ways to solve it. I saw a void of independent media during a crucial market segment and I thought I take a stab at providing a potential solution.