One of the more exciting aspects of chasing down Covergence issues is coming across a new type of coverage. In this case, it's a marriage of the immediacy of broadcast, the accessibility of print and delivery via the Internet.
PilotOnline is doing a real-time Web journal from the Washington, D.C., area sniper trial of John Allen Muhammad. What makes this journal so interesting is that this is a new way of using the Web to cover a breaking story. It takes the play-by-play nature of radio and television and converges it online. This journal is being done by Kerry Sipe, news online coordinator for The Virginian-Pilot. Here's what Sipe told this Chaser about the journal in an e-mail during a recess in the court proceedings:
Continuous online coverage of the trial was my idea. Since there was to be no TV or audio allowed by the court, I felt that real-time online reports would be the next best way to satisfy the intense interest in the trial. I have not seen it done in quite the intensive way I am trying to do it, though I did find one case on the Internet of a television station that did online reports of a trial.
I am using a laptop with a wireless connection to the Internet. My copy is essentially self-edited, though I do have some folks back at the paper looking over my shoulder.
The blog had been up for only a few minutes yesterday when I began to get e-mails about it. I've heard from about a dozen readers who think it's great to get able to get news about the trial while it happens.
Down the road, as reported in today's E-Media tidbits by my Poynter colleague Steve Outing, Gazette.Net site is also publishing frequent updates from the trial. However, we haven't seen anything like the PilotOnline's efforts.
We hope to keep a watch on this effort of going "live" without a formal editing process, including how stressful will this be for the online reporter, Kerry Sipe.
Chaser Note: The meta-meter just went up. Howard is quoted in this Associated Press article about Sipe's blog. --R.S.
