Five ways content creators have adapted to the world of Coronavirus

With people all over the world stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, online media consumption has increased.

But how do you produce entertaining content responsibly in the age of social distancing and self-quarantine?

Here’s how content creators are working despite conditions that would be enough to give anyone creative block.

Follow the regular format while sheltering at home.

Many creators already make and post their content alone, but for some the transition from starring role to one-person-production has been an educational journey.

Take the 13 stars from the Bon Appetit YouTube channel, who normally work a day job at the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen and each star in their own shows. These pro-chefs became amateur videographers in their kitchens due to COVID-19 safety measures, and now film themselves before sending the footage off to be edited.

While these lone-stars have found a simple solution, what have creators with collaborative shows done to adapt?

Create while alone, together.

To continue producing their content, some co-creators have found isolation work-arounds.

The stars of Buzzfeed’s hit YouTube show, Buzzfeed Unsolved, have taken to filming simultaneously from separate locations while talking over the phone. The co-hosts of the podcast And That’s Why We Drink also now record their episodes via a shared call from their separate locations.

These new methods come with growing pains like lagging connections, but the creators need and want to continue producing their content.

“We just want to offer you some chuckles in this weird, weird, weird time,” Buzzfeed Unsolved co-host, Shane Madej said in the show's first remotely recorded show.

Start something new.

So what if a creator wants to offer you something to chuckle about, but their normal content is pre-produced and coming out at a fixed schedule?

Jonathan Sims, writer and voice-actor for cult-hit podcast The Magnus Archives, sent a tweet on March 21 saying that due to his self-isolation he was thinking of venturing into live streaming on Twitch, an entirely new platform for him.

Only one day later, he streamed his first video playing a popular video game to an audience of over 1400.

This new distraction from the reality of the global situation was welcomed by his following, but some creators have gone in the opposite direction and are focusing on the pandemic.

Zero in on coronavirus content.

Some media seeks to inform as much as entertain.

The podcast This Podcast Will Kill You was already talking about different diseases every week, but since February has been mainly covering coronaviruses, even starting an Anatomy of a Pandemic series.

This series has nine episodes so far and deals with different aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak, starting with virology and going all the way through economical effects.

While some creators feel a sense of responsibility to keep their audiences entertained or informed during this pandemic, others have taken it upon themselves to try and provide a different kind of relief.

Make media that gives back.

Several influential creators have leveraged their platforms to help raise money for COVID-19 relief causes.

Sean McLoughlin, popularly known as Jacksepticeye on YouTube, was a part of a multi-creator, multi-site event on April 7. Altogether over $1.7 million was raised and donated to three charities, with McLoughlin’s 12-hour livestream on YouTube raising over $600,000 alone.

“But what’s also important about this is because such a positive message is being raised, so much money is being raised, and so many people are here talking about it... then awareness is raised for this. Because people who are sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, like, wondering what to do about this can see that and go, oh, now I have a place to go to make a difference,” McLoughlin said during the livestream.