Live Blogging Time to Live Blog
The simplicity and low or even no cost of blogging and the spread of wifi connectivity have made live blogging a popular genre or category of blogging and important addition to reportage of crises and events. Live blogging is simply blogging in real-time, while a news event is taking place.
As a form, live blogging provides a visceral account of the event, usually from the unique point of view of the individual blogger. As such, live blog accounts typically include the personal opinions and observations of the blogger, making these accounts highly idiosyncratic, personal, and qualified.
Once you have decided that a live blog is a way to go and have committed to doing it well (there are few things worse than a live blog badly done), here’s how. First, live blogging requires preparation. Find out whether you will have Internet or mobile access at the event, which often means getting in touch with the venue. If they do, will you have to pay If mobile is all you will have, you might need to verify signal strength and reliability. In short, find out what options you will have for connectivity.
Live Blog
The following are excerpts from a live blog account of a Republican Party rally in northwest Georgia. The blogger, John Druckenmiller, did what a good live blogger should.
Senate Candidates Make Their Pitches at Packed GOP Rally Hometown Headlines
spent midday Saturday at the Floyd County GOP’s annual rally at the Tillman Hangar. Our speaker-by-speaker coverage is below. We’re about to add a photo gallery from the event. Please check back by 3 p.m. 1:22 p.m. Speeches end. Time for the straw poll results. Gingrey wins the poll by 34.4% followed by Handel at 26.7, Broun at 18.3, Kingston at 13.7, Perdue at 5.3, Grayson at 1.5, and no votes for Yu. 1:16 p.m. Eugene Yu: Vote for Yu—for you. That’s what Yu says his pitch is. Says do you want a senator who’s one of 100 or one of a kind.
Says he’s one of a kind. Says he might look and talk a little different but “I am proud to be an American… I will deliver your voice in Washington.” Says the American dream is slipping away; he wants to save it for his children and grandchildren. Says once elected, leaders forget what got them to Washington and for what reasons. Talks about the balanced budget and whips out his wallet as an example. Says common sense will solve budget woes.
THE ORIGINAL REPORT TODAY
The barge had yet to formally enter the race; expect an announcement soon. Citing scheduling conflicts, Deal did not attend today’s rally but did send a campaign team. Also not attending: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Blogging Journalism
A blog launched by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and written by technology reporter Todd Bishop showed the field of journalism how blogs could enhance reporting. Bishop’s blog quickly became a daily extension of an important Seattle beat—covering the software giant Microsoft, which is based in the Seattle area. The newspaper’s print edition and traditional website remained the places or spaces to break news, but Bishop said the blog gave him space to follow up on print stories with information that perhaps did not require a full story.
Last word
His blog also became a place to give readers valuable context for the print stories, expanding and extending coverage for those who wanted to read (much) more about Microsoft. “After writing a story about liability for software flaws,” for example, Bishop said, “I posted an entry that gave readers access to a lot of the material that helped me understand the issue and put the story together.”