By Morgan Billington

Since the launch of Instagram video in June, the familiar faces of TV newscasts are up close and personal in a new way.

After using Instagram video in a segment to announce the app’s upgrade, the anchor personalities of the “Today” show have taken to video-sharing to capture behind-the-scenes snippets and humorous studio moments. Savannah Guthrie (@savannahgutherie) has become an avid Instagram videographer, sharing her early morning beauty makeovers, on-set disturbances from tweeting birds, and live on-stage video of performances. Another member of the “Today” show roundtable, Tamron Hall (@tamronhall), proved that even big-time broadcast journalists can have a slow day. “Obviously I’m bored at work,” she explained, as she spun around in her desk chair for her Instagram followers to see.

“ABC 27 News” (abc27news) anchor, Valerie Pritchett wasted no time after the Instagram video launch to promote her program, “Live at Five” from her office cubicle with smiley coworkers. The news and sports network, based in Central Pennsylvania, also shares behind the scenes and news photos and videos to keep its 538 Instagram followers in-the-know and current with show programming.

“E! News” anchor Giuliana Rancic teased her followers with an Instagram video to hint at the evening’s episode. “Tonight on E! News, I eat worms, like really nasty worms,” Rancic clues, as she displays a plate of squirmy critters on the set of the show.

While newscasters have been using Instagram video mostly for promoting and humanizing TV news, the new video platform also offers 15 seconds of airtime that could be used for coverage. As these short-form video platforms continue to evolve, it will be interesting to see how TV reporters use Instagram and its rival, Twitter’s Vine, for telling news stories.