Should I Animate That? 5 Questions for Animated GIFs in Journalism

If you’ve seen this BuzzFeed coverage of an emotional Olympics race, or this chronicling of gymnastic detail on The Atlantic Wire, then you’ve recently watched two nifty examples of animated journalism GIFs. (Note: I didn’t say GIFs about journalism, like these news cats. Hopefully you’ve already seen those.)

The success of GIF-infused content in actual news content has some media circles buzzing around a longtime internet graphic capability: “Is this an overlooked tool, or just a fad?, “Are we Buzzfeedifying maintsream news orgs, or is that a silly question now?”, and “should journalists embrace them, or are they somehow detrimental to the craft?”

They aren’t all simple questions, and I don’t have answers.

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