Next Media Animation Brings News to Life

Imagine that you are a journalist. A bus accident has just happened in your hometown. The bus’ front, left tire popped. Then, the bus hit a pothole and flipped over. From what you gather, scores are dead.

You arrive at the scene of the accident with your photographer. You get a few pictures of the ruined bus; you grab some interviews with the victims’ families, the bus company and the police. Your news station breaks the story at five.

Twenty-four hours later, your hometown has gone through its stages of shock and grief. Now, people have questions. Why did the tire pop? How did it hit the pothole? Was the driver doing anything reckless when this happened?

This is the story Mark Simon, Commercial Director of Next Media Animation (NMA), used to illustrate the purpose of NMA.

“This is where animation comes in,” he said.

The goal of NMA is to provide footage for television news when there is no available video. Needless to say, video of the aforementioned bus on its side in a pool of shattered glass is much more powerful than a descriptive paragraph of the aftermath. In much the same way, it might be easy to write about how the tire popped, how the bus hit a pothole and how the bus flipped over. With video, though, the story is much more powerful.

NMA has seen a swift rise in popularity ever since the world discovered its animated satirical videos, such as the ones with Tiger Woods and Conan O’Brien. Rest assured that this was the plan all along. Entrepreneur and media tycoon, Jimmy Lai, plans to extend his newspaper, magazine and now – animation, empire outside East Asia.

Julie Huang, PR and Marketing Assistant of the NMA New York branch explained that the satire is meant to draw in people to the idea of animation on television.

“Right now, we’re still promoting the satire pieces,” Huang said. “But we’re really trying to launch this more serious, hard news animations that’s geared towards TV broadcast.”

For more about Next Media Animation, visit: http://nma.com.tw/