Leaderboard for week of 7-13-2009: Live tweet edition

This week’s Leaderboard focuses on live tweeting, the cousin of live blogging.

In many ways, live tweeting is almost the same as live blogging with a service like CoveritLive. But there are differences. First, Twitter is more open and much easier to discover.

People need to know about a CoveritLive live blog ahead of time, but via #hashtags, retweets and @replies, more and more people can discover a journalist live tweeting.

There are negatives from live tweeting, such as having tweets get lost in a stream of other people’s tweets. This can be rectified by embedding a Twitter feed onto a blog or other Web site.

In the end, however, both live tweeting and live blogging offer real promise for journalists and provide a new level of coverage for users.

Tracie Mauriello | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

• Mauriello is nominated for her excellent live tweeting of “bonusgate,” a public corruption investigation in Pa. Her fellow reporters in Harrisburg retweeted her excellent work all day long and even relied on her to provide blow-by-blow details of a hearing on the investigation.
• More than 100 lawmakers and staffers from the general assembly were subpoenaed to testify for the defense in this public corruption investigation.
• Mauriello posted what amounts to a day-long account, all on twitter, of a hearing on the investigation. She did this all day long and didn’t stop at any point. It amounts to an interpretive transcript.
• Fellow political reporter Alex Roarty said, “It’s how everybody in the Pa. political community is getting there news from [the hearing].”
• Citizens interested in learning more about this hearing were also treated to a live, interactive transcript of this event. Something like this wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago.

Nick Martin | Heat City

• This non-profit startup focuses on hard news and public interest journalism in the Phoenix area. We especially like the use of social media for soliciting tips. Editor Nick Martin is also active on social networks like Twitter.
• Martin is a very good user of Twitter. He links to interesting stories, solicits tips, interacts with users and more. Too many journalists use their Twitter accounts to just push people to existing content. Martin’s Twitter account offers additional value for fans of Heat City.
• Martin also created a second Twitter account, @SerialShooter, to live tweet from trial of an accused serial shooter.
• Martin has Google ads and a tip jar on the site to support his efforts. It remains to be seen how Heat City will be received by the community — especially those who might send in donations — but Martin has several great examples of how to mix new and social media with public interest journalism.

Ledger Live | The Star-Ledger

• Over the past year this video show from The Star-Ledger has gone from a more traditional show to a show that feels more like a video blog. Users have reacted to the change and the show has become more popular. Many news orgs have jumped head first into video, often hitting their heads at the shallow end of the pool.
• Ledger Live was always an interesting take on a daily news show with a more casual style, but even that wasn’t enough for Web users. People have different expectations for video on the Web, and broadcast standards don’t cut it. Plus, young users are often turned off by network news-style video shows.
• The Nieman Lab reports that the changes were brought about by the Ledger beginning to understand how people consume video: “The show used to broadcast live at noon, but few viewers remembered to pull up the live stream on the newspaper’s schedule. Others didn’t understand they could watch past episodes on demand. Over time, the newspaper found that the Ledger Live audience was not particularly interested in watching a videotaped version of print news, which forced the show to become more topical. Donohue still addresses important news, but not in the way the newspaper does. He’s more dynamic — he even takes calls sometimes — in an effort to let readers and viewers peer into the newsroom.”
• The videos got shorter and were longer a part of a giant video package, like the news shows of yesterday. People consume video on the Web in bits and chunks, and that is something the new Ledger Live has tapped into. People also like to interact on the Web, and Ledger Live has become more interactive as well.
• The idea of doing a video show as almost a video blog is an idea to watch. The Star-Ledger has seen a lot of upheaval over the last year, but it is trying some really innovative ideas and experiments.