With its latest original series, Yahoo is looking to freshen up the news. On June 22nd, it will relaunch Viewfinder, which purports to “[reimagine] the art of short-form storytelling.”
Viewfinder is one of 18 series Yahoo discussed when it presented to advertisers at the 2015 Newfronts. Across monthly episodes, the docu-series will span a number of different topics, many of which will discuss social justice issues. The first episode, for example, will be titled “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays,” and it will discuss the history of LGBT discrimination in the United States. Some future installments will cover similar ground by addressing transgender life and women’s rights.
A Yahoo press release calls Viewfinder a re-imagination of its previous documentary coverage, which can be found under the same title. Perhaps the site’s most significant video journalism piece was its 2012 profile of a Bay Area highway patrolman who prevents people from throwing themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge.
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With its social justice slant and its professional presentation, Viewfinder feels a lot like Yahoo’s answer to Vice’s brand of edgy journalism. Further that comparison is Yahoo’s decision to work with student filmmakers, who will lend youthful voices to Viewfinder.
More information about Viewfinder is available in a Tumblr post from Anna Robertson, the VP/Head of Yahoo Video.
