Instagram can be a useful platform for journalists who want to reach a different audience and approach their stories in a more visual way.
In this post on the Online Journalism Blog, Paul Bradshaw, who runs the MA in Multiplatform and Mobile Journalism at Birmingham City University, provides some insights on how the platform can be used to cover elections.
The takeaways are based on an experiment from Sam Gould, a student on the MA Online Journalism course, who used Instagram to report on the West Midlands mayoral elections earlier this year.
Having a template for Instagram posts not only ensures consistency, Gould found, but it also helps your audience recognise your news brand in their feed.
He also advises uses Instagram's carousel feature to tease soundbites from interviews, whether to share quotes from a political figure on different topics, or show the opinions of multiple interviewees on the same topic.
Free daily newsletter
If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).
Related articles
- Newsrewired throwback: fact-checking, Gen Z and public interest news
- The Telegraph gears up to cover the US election on Reddit
- Rachel Duffy, senior social media editor of The Telegraph, on using Reddit for news
- A two-person Substack newsletter got 550 people to turn up to local election events
- IMPRESS recommends six questions UK news outlets should put to parliamentary candidates
