Live blogging

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Live blogging is the process of writing and curating blogs in real time. They consist of a collection of different media, so they are a mix of u. a. Include images, texts, videos, and social media posts. A simpler, slightly modified form of the live blog is the live ticker , which is mainly used at sports events and records the most important events and developments in various media forms. Live blogs have thus become an important tool for journalists and are also used in event marketing .

Working method

Live blogs are curated by one or more bloggers, usually in collaboration with photographers and videographers, in order to create a mixture of text and images, and it is also possible to insert videos, GIFs and social media posts. A live blog is often used in combination with a live stream . The live blogs are usually integrated into the client's website and adapted to their needs. Live bloggers take over the mobile reporting in order to report quickly and directly on the event or event.

Live blog development

The first format of this kind goes back to Gareth Owen for the BBC's reporting on the budget planning of the British Parliament, and since then the format has been developed and specified more and more. In the first few years, events in the technology industry were mainly covered on websites such as Gimondo, Engadget, Techcrunch and Macworld (e.g. Stevenote's at Macworld Expo or WWDC ), but also reporting on demonstrations against the government in Iran in 2009.

In the German area, it is primarily the providers storytile, Tickaroo and Scribble who offer live blogs and tickers for various editorial offices, news portals and publishers as well as for companies, NGOs , associations and parties.

Use of live blogs

Live blogs are mainly used for:

  • High news events (international, national and regional conflicts, disasters, demonstrations and civil unrest);
  • Sporting events,
  • Elections,
  • Conferences and meetings,
  • Events of all kinds

Live blogs are ideal for all events where a lot happens and can be recorded at rather short intervals. Meanwhile, a live blog shows an overview of current developments, changes and particularly important events in real-time; in retrospect, it shows a documentation of the events in their chronological sequence.

Technology and providers

The simplest form of live blogging does not require any additional software. An article in a CMS or an HTML file is continually supplemented with new content over time. The disadvantage of this way of working is for editors u. a. the lack of the possibility of collaboration in the team, as well as the lack of automatic updates for new content for the readers of the live blog. In addition, live blogs can achieve exceptionally high access numbers in a short time, which requires a highly resilient server infrastructure, especially in the news area. There are various software solutions to remedy these disadvantages. In German-speaking countries, CMS solutions from storytile, Tickaroo and ScribbleLive are particularly widespread for professional users, and in the non-commercial area, the Wordpress plug-in Liveblog.

Role of Live Blogs in the Media Landscape

Live blogs are playing an increasingly important role in the media landscape because they can not only reflect current events and events immediately and quickly, but can also easily incorporate and link social media and all kinds of media. You also make journalistic mobile storytelling possible. Especially since live blogs are a genuine form of the online age, it makes them particularly topical, as Matt Wells of the Guardian also emphasizes on the subject of live blogs: Live blogging is a "unique digital format that has developed in a way which of course is in relation to the internet. " As a result, he explains that live blogs are less a prognosis that journalism will die than they are the embodiment of its future.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Record-Breaking One Million Viewers Simultaneously Stream ScribbleLive Coverage of Apple Event. Retrieved December 18, 2018 (American English).
  2. ↑ WordPress com VIP, Big Bite Creative, contributors: Liveblog. Retrieved December 18, 2018 (German).
  3. ^ Matt Wells, How live blogging has transformed journalism. March 28, 2011, accessed October 23, 2018 .