A guide to reporting live using online tools, including Twitter and liveblogs.

1. Live Reporting
& Breaking News
Mandy Jenkins @mjenkins
NorCal Social Training, April 2012
#norcalsoc

2. Why We Go Live
Immediacy
Tracking a long-term story
Traffic
Community engagement
Saving time writing for various
formats

3. Liveblogging Situations
Breaking story
Meeting
Event (festival, march, concert)
Trial
Daylong (Election Day, weather)
Sporting event
Reporting long-term stories

4. Liveblogging prep
Get names, titles in advance
when possible
Set scene & your role
Describe your circumstances,
vantage point: At event, watching
on TV, curating tweets

6. Try It Now:
#NorCalSoc

7. Live Tweeting
Mix play-by-play with context, background
Pass on quotes, who is there, add in
photos
Use tweets as your notes for later
Note significant pauses and stops
Check facts before you hit “tweet”
Take questions, respond when possible

9. Why Use #Hashtags?
Group tweets by keyword
Find other sources
Expand your audience
Organize content for display and archiving

10. Before You Hashtag
Search for hashtag(s) already in use
If a hashtag is already in use, adopt it
If not, choose one that’s simple & unique
Geographic abbreviation helps
(#ChicoStorm)
Geographic better than branded (#CApolitics
better than #CETpolitics)

11. What Livetweeting Can Do
Feed tweets into your site in place of a
breaking story
Serve your audience on social media –
and reach a new one
Helps staff communicate
Start writing a story in-office from
reporters’ live tweets

14. Say what you don’t know

15. Link to fresh content

16. More Live Reporting Formats
Updates in (time-stamp, reverse-chron
order) in your blog or story template

17. CoveritLive

18. CoveritLive

19. Livestream/Video Chat

20. QIK (Mobile LIVE video)

21. Video/Chat Options
Ustream
Livestream
Qik
Google+ Hangout
Couple it with a liveblog or chat format to
take questions or include text

22. Think Beyond Text
Videos Audio
Photos Tweets
Slides Source
Graphics documents
Social Media Maps

23. Tips, techniques
Short, frequent takes
Liveblog becomes notebook for story
Promote before, during and replays
Curate live tweets to be viewed later

24. Managing liveblog & story
Liveblog is notebook: cut, paste, write,
edit
Note when you know you’ve written good
lead or passage for story
Note questions to pursue later
Does summary work for print?
Plug “complete coverage” in liveblog

25. Live Coverage Team
Develop a hashtag (if there isn't one) and
be sure everyone uses it
If your staff is tweeting, pull in their tweets
to your site
Determine who posts and edits the liveblog
Get photogs aboard early

26. Team Liveblog Roles
Play-by-play
Commentary
Live-tweet (#nocalsocial)
Find & add links for context
Photos and video
Moderate questions, comments

27. Points to remember
Standard of completeness changes;
commitment to accuracy remains
Attribute, hedge, verify, seek verification
Say what you don’t know, too
Conversation, not a monologue

28. Live Chat Tools
CoveritLive/ScribbleLive
Your existing blogging platform
Twitter

29. Live Chat Technique
Give some questions to guests in advance
Panelists need not be in person
You approve questions
Add in polls, links for background
(prepare in advance)
Group related questions together
Preview questions coming up

30. Live Chat Ideas
Newsmakers, politicians
Host chat w/ community bloggers (dining,
sports, entertainment)
Reporters on recent big stories, recurring
issues, topics of expertise

31. Twitter Chats
Set time, promote it to followers long in
advance
Take questions in advance
Use a hashtag to tie tweets together
Choose questions to answer, retweet
them with order ID. Ex: Q1
Preface answer with corresponding
answer (A1)

32. THANKS!
Mandy Jenkins
mjenkins@digitalfirstmedia.com
@mjenkins
Blog: Zombiejournalism.com
These slides & more at
slideshare.net/mandyjenkins