Guardian's 2013 Budget video round-up is lovely

The Guardian - that august UK liberal mouthpiece - continues to innovate ahead of its rivals such as the New York Times. Today we see a dedicated page containing links that let you run individual video segments showing working journalists give their own run-down on a part of the country's 2013 Budget.

It took a little bit of trying to work out which links to click on (they could be made more prominent, I thought), but once you get the hang of it the interface is simple.

Each journalist talks on-camera for a few minutes as he or she (in the eight videos there's only one woman, in the final one, on banks) gives a quick precis of the main points contained in the annual Budget.

Affect is an important element for understanding, and these videos are happily heavy on affect. You get to see each individual person, watch their mannerisms, hear their voices, and listen to their ways of speaking. Affect enhances the consumer's ability to take in information. Because the take-up is quicker, it's easier and more fun. And fun is something that the YouTube generation values highly. I very much enjoyed seeing these working journos give their spiels. I felt their experience and expertise, and I grokked their passion for their craft.

This is something I'd hope to see more of. In Australia, the Australian has done this type of thing from time to time, but never in such an integrated package as this. We also see News Ltd journalists on TV in Australia, most notably on Channel Ten and on Sky News. But this kind of integrated package of videos - eight journalists talking on one subject - is something that we have never seen in this country before. Kudos to the Guardian for staying, as per usual, ahead of the pack.