How to Tell Visual Stories on the Internet

Josune Imízcoz shows us how to master tone, aesthetics, and emotion in audiovisual storytelling on social media

Josune Imízcoz (@josune_imizcoz) has written for newspapers, presented on TV and radio, and is a journalist whose creativity is constantly evolving. Lately, she has been specializing in digital audiovisual storytelling, i.e., videos especially conceived to be shared and consumed on social media.

The videos aim to tell great stories in a few seconds, trying to connect with an audience that is overexposed to information on the internet and on social media. It is essential to pay particular attention to tone, aesthetics, and emotion when creating digital content. What are those, exactly? Josune defines them as follows:

Once you decide what story you want to tell online, you must define the story’s tone, aesthetic, and the overall emotion you wish to transmit to the viewer so that the video content is consistent.

Tone

The tone is the narrative voice used to tell the story and its attitude towards the audience. There are many ways to tell the same story–informative, editorial, intimate, ironic, conversational–and it is essential to find a suitable way to connect with the viewer.

Aesthetics

The look, sensibility, and style of your story’s images that are part of your digital content are its aesthetic. This aspect is fundamental to achieve consistency between the video’s visual element and the story you want to tell.

Emotion

It is the feeling–surprise, empathy, outrage, solidarity–you want to awaken in your viewer, and it depends on your intention to communicate something. We do not always have to provoke an emotion: our aim can be to communicate something discreetly and candidly, merely sharing information.

These three elements must be in line with the central theme. If they are well defined, they will provide a consistent and sound narrative.

In her Domestika course, 'Audiovisual storytelling for Social Media,’ Josune Imízcoz teaches video narrative for digital channels and storytelling techniques suited for the Internet.

You may be interested in:

- Content Creation and Editing for Instagram Stories, a course by Mina Barrio.
- Communication Strategy for Social Media, a course by Núria Mañé.
- Creative Photography for Social Media, a course by Anna Devís and Daniel Rueda.