Resource:
CoverItLive
We believe CoveritLive allows for a new type of online reporting; it’s a great tool for providing your expert and in-depth commentary during an event, with the ability to interact in real-time with your readers through live polls, instant questions and multimedia. Here are a few of the many ways CoveritLive can be used to engage online audiences:
- Deliver Breaking News
- Provide in-depth Local News
- Run a Q&A Session
- Get Political
- Cover the Big Game
- Host a Regularly Scheduled Event
- Live Blog a Conference
- Entertain TV Fans
- Educate and Debate
- Host an Earnings Call” Source: CoverItLive
“CoverItLive is a simple application that can be installed on a blog with an embed code. From the front end on the blog, readers can follow the reports on the time line. They can ask questions, give comments, or send files for example pictures. At the back end the blogger or reporter controls the process. He or she starts the reporting by typing messages on the time-line. This setup makes CoverItLive highly interactive and opens the road to real time messaging.
From the console there are lots of possibilities. For example adding photos or video; sending a news flash to the followers of the session; or doing a quick poll. A session on CoverItLive is also open to Twitter, meaning tweets can be published directly.
Adding a webcam is easy, and the followers can see what is happening on location…Generally CoverItLive works best when the news breaks so fast that it does not make sense to start traditional reporting on a website or blog. Good examples of interesting practices of live blogging were the shooting in Norway … or the tsunami in Japan.” Source: Memeburn
The Journalism Accelerator is not responsible for the content we post here, as excerpts from the source, or links on those sites. The JA does not endorse these sites or their products outright but we sure are intrigued with what they’re up to.
Topics: Craft Resources Technology
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3 comments so far.
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Denise Cheng says:
December 31, 2011 at 8:25 am
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Anne Galloway says:
December 31, 2011 at 7:03 am
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Anne Galloway says:
December 31, 2011 at 7:08 am
| ParticipantsWe used it at The Rapidian as well. As a volunteer reporter, I started using it to cover a local microgranting series. The community would give $5 for a vote and a bowl of soup, and while they were supping, candidates would go over their proposal for a community benefit or arts-based project. Since the number of presenters could range from one to five, it was too much to capture in a news story, so CoverItLive was a good solution to capture all the excitement without sacrificing for word count.
In addition, I recruited a few other community members as reporters, and we all contributed to it. It was so easy that others have adopted Sunday Soup as their Rapidian beat. A word of caution, though: When taking photos, make sure the settings are for low resolution so they upload to CoverItLive quickly. Long lag times are a bummer.
CoverItLive was pretty straightforward for our web designer to install. We used the liveblogging tool for the 2010 gubernatorial race in Vermont. We let readers know in advance when we would begin the live coverage. About five of us contributed content. Three people were stationed at the Republican headquarters and two of us were at the Democratic headquarters as the results started to come in. We posted any and all info as the night progressed — who was there, how the results were shaping up, what pols were saying, etc. We also posted video and photos. The cool thing was we could also highlight the work of other media outlets, citing TV stations, newspapers and radio stations as sources. Readers weighed in on a constant basis, throwing in their own tips, questions and insights.
Addendum. VTDigger.org has only used CoverItLive in an election application. I like the suggestions from JA re: more regular usage as a way to get readers involved on a more frequent basis, or using it to cover conferences. The trick there is to have a dedicated page on your site that readers are aware of, and that you link to through posts so that you don’t have to rework your front page all the time. The other thing to consider is how to best archive the information.