It has been difficult to escape hearing about the Coronavirus in 2020. Seemingly every time you turn on the TV, tune into the radio, open up the newspaper, scroll through twitter or fire up your web browser you are met with new statistics or stories regarding the disease. The issue has become so saturated that for many, or for me at least, any information on the topic is now disregarded. You’ll see it and think “oh, this again.” It just goes in one ear and out the other. We’ve all seen it all too much.
But, earlier today I stumbled on this NPR article that discusses the Coronavirus from an unusual perspective (I’ve linked the article above). The article highlights an important issue that has gone overlooked: What should kids know about the Coronavirus? It’s a simple question with a complex answer, because we aren’t kids. For a child, hearing about the Coronavirus during the news’ sensationalist stories or at school from classmates who also don’t fully understand it could be quite alarming and scary. A child’s mind could run rampant with doom and gloom with all of the information floating around about this disease. So, what do they need to know? This article, using information from experts at LSU, University of Illinois and the National Institute of Mental Health, addresses what kids need to know about the virus to protect themselves from it and to ease their worries. That sounds great in theory of course, but how are you going to get a kid to read a boring article on NPR about the Coronavirus? I’m an avid reader and even I am yawning just thinking of doing that. NPR did something genius here to combat children’s short attention spans: They turned the information into a fun, colorful, educational and easily digestible comic strip. Heck, I even found it infinitely more enjoyable than your average wall of text Coronavirus story. I also learned a thing or two.
A succinct lede, followed by three very short paragraphs, preface the Coronavirus comic. And that is it. The reader now just has to scroll down through the attractive and lighthearted comic strip. There is not much to read in the comic either, as it only took me about 2 or 3 minutes, but it is chock full of important information for both kids and adults. For example, it highlights how most cases of the disease have been mild (and explains what ‘mild’ means in this context), what the symptoms are, that professionals are working to solve the issue and how you and your family are likely safe if you wash your hands. All of this useful information is presented at a 3rd grade reading level as well, so kids can easily understand it.
I think this is a great example of journalism adapting and utilizing multimedia to reach a new audience and to help people. This article and comic has the potential to make many kids feel a lot better about the Coronavirus epidemic, thus exemplifying the importance and power of good multimedia elements in journalism.
The Pointless Blog 