You can easily add multimedia elements — including photos, videos, audio files and graphics — to any article or page. This guide explores how to add video or audio elements to your story.
Video, audio and information graphics – including maps, charts, tables, etc. – should be embedded whenever feasible. Do not upload these types of multimedia content to the Media Library without prior permission from your instructor. For more, see Adding Video & Audio below.
But first things first: We can use only content we create ourselves or that we have permission to use. Safe places are the public domain; Creative Commons (Flickr has a lot) with proper crediting and the link; some government photos and logos, and items that people expressly give us permission to use IF they have the right to do that. (Caution: The subject of a photo cannot give us permission to use a photo unless it is also OK with the photographer and, perhaps, the publisher.) Images from Twitter and Faceboook and other social media are not automatically OK. Just because someone puts something on social media does not strip away its copyright protections. The Wiki people have written a detailed description of Creative Commons rules. Our bottom line, though is that as journalists we CREATE media. We do not simply find it. So, for images to contribute to your grade or career, they should be your own.
How to add video to your article
Because of the size of video, we strongly recommend those files be uploaded to a video service such as YouTube or Vimeo. Talk to your instructor. Your class may have a central account for all students to post content (as opposed to using your own personal YouTube.)
You then can embed that content into your article.
See also how to write descriptions for video and audio.
If you want to add a video at the top of your story, follow the steps under “Set a video as Featured Media.” To add a video in other locations, follow these steps:
Add video in locations throughout the story
- Start by uploading your video to YouTube.
- Copy the YouTube share URL.
- Go to your article/post. Add a YouTube block where you want the video to appear.
- Paste the YouTube share URL into the field.
Set a video as Featured Media
Ideally, all news articles will have Featured Media. You can use a photo or a video as the Featured Media.
The Featured Media is used on the website home page, as well as landing pages for categories, tags and series, along with the headline and excerpt text of a news article. The website will automatically crop featured images to the correct size on these pages.
- Start by uploading your video to YouTube.
- Copy the YouTube share URL.
- Go to your article/post. Find the Featured Media module, typically in the lower right corner of the post screen.
- Click “Set Featured Media.”
- In the left column of the window that opens, find “Featured video” and click it.
- In the Video URL field, paste the YouTube share URL.
- If this field does to appear (and the screen appears blank), click to one of the other Featured options, and then click back to “Featured video.”
- The system will automatically create an embed code and grab a video thumbnail from the video. You can override the automatic thumbnail by uploading your own image.
- Click “Set as featured.”
- While the video may not appear in the edit view of your article, if you preview your article you will see the video displayed at full width at the top, running the full width of the screen.
How to add audio to your article
Because of the size of audio files, we recommend those files be uploaded to a file service such as SoundCloud (for audio). Talk to your instructor. Your class may have a central account for all students to post content (as opposed to using your own personal SoundCloud account.)
You then can embed that content into your article.
- Start by uploading your video to Soundcloud.
- Copy the Soundcloud share URL.
- Go to your article/post. Add a SoundCloud block where you want the audio to appear.
- Paste the Soundcloud share URL into the field.