As we all know blogging is not one of the easiest things to do. Especially when it comes to connecting with your audience and keeping them engaged. The two articles, “Research reveals popularity of live blogging” by Roy Greenslade and “The dangers of unverified content & tips living blogging disasters” by Katy Torgovnikov opened my eyes to how beneficial it can be but also what to look out for while doing it.
Apparently, live blogging is one of the most effective ways to get people to participate in your blog. The numbers that it is doing over the typical “online article” blog are ridiculous. I mean that in a good way. The first article pointed out that live blogs are getting 300% more views. One of the reasons being because they provide more of a breaking news aspects rather than summarizing. Live blog sessions can last up to several hours at a time. It is a fast pace process that keeps writers on their toes.
It is very easy to get caught up in the idea of live blogging and how great it is. Many participants do not realize that the information may not be very factual. The information that is being received is not so reliable because of the fact that the writer is doing continuos posting. Therefore he/she may not have time to check if the information they are putting out is accurate. The crazy part about all of this is that the reader doesn’t really care too much about that. According the article “readers feel that live blogs are less opinionated and ‘more factual’ than traditional articles written with care after an event”. I found that difficult to understand because it seems so backwards. Wouldn’t you think a post that someone can spend more time on is more factual?
Readers enjoy the idea of live blogging more because it is happening in front of their very eyes. People love the idea of being involved with something or watching it happen. Live blogging gives an audience the chance “to follow the unfolding of a story on a single page and can see how it develops “. I personally think it is great because many people can become connected and discuss one topic. Although, it does get a little tricky when it comes to using hashtags. One thing that the article “The dangers of unverified content & tips living blogging disasters” mentioned to do is to create a hashtag that is significant to your audience. There have been plenty of cases where common hashtags have been used but are not related to the same live blog feed. With hashtags you also have to be mindful that it will generate repetition. I know that when I am on twitter and I see the same thing over and over again it can be pretty annoying. As a writer you should be mindful of that and how it may happen impact your readers. I really like the idea of live blogging specifically because it can keep you updated and because it happens at a fast pace. When any type of breaking news happens it is easy to get connected to what is going on.
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Hey Jade! I really like how you stated that live blogging has ” breaking news aspects” and included the picture with the megaphone. I feel the main benefit with live blogging is definitely the live feel to it. Articles that are posted after a special occasion or event tend to give a more general feel. You mentioned how you were confused with how many readers feel live blogs are more factual than articles that are written afterwards. I feel as though opinions in themselves give a more factual sense to an event because if you think about it, it’s kind of a primary source? But at the same time articles can also contain interviews of people who were there so they can be very factual as well. I think it’s really a toss up. I like how you also mentioned the dangers behind hashtags. I always thought hashtags were just a fun little aspects to tweets that not many people think/care too much about. I didn’t realize how important it is that you avoid repetition when it comes to hashtags. When you said hashtag significance it really opened my eyes to how important hashtags really are when it comes to reader enticement. I guess seeing the same tags over and over again could get somewhat annoying but at the same time it could also lead to like humor and running gags that can also add more excitement to a blog so I feel it’s another toss up in my opinion.
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Hi Jade. You bring up an interesting point about repetition. Liveblogging something makes it more popular, and therefore more likely to go viral and be repeated all over the internet. I remember during the world cup, Ronaldo had an S shaved into his hair, and when he scored a goal on Ghana, that guaranteed that the US got into the round of 16. A photoshopped picture of Rolando circulated over twitter and other media outlets making the S appear to be the center of USA.
While it was funny at the time, people felt pretty bad when they learned that Ronaldo has donated money to a child with cancer to help with his treatment and medical bills. The boy had died during the cup, and he shaved the S into his head in memory of the child. This was a kind action that the internet made fun of due to lack of knowledge and missinformation in a spout of worldwide live blogging.
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Hey Jade!
I really like how you questioned “Wouldn’t you think a post that someone can spend more time on is more factual?” You really make a good point. Your question just supports that live blogging is unreliable. With live blogging, information is readily available which is why it may be unreliable. It is a serious thing to have factual evidence because it can really cause harm not only the blogger but also the people around the blogger.
I think providing factual evidence is just common sense. It should be easy. I honestly think the positives outweigh negatives. For example, it would be great if I saw a DIY project live because then I get to see for myself what happens from the beginning to the end. Even though I read the directions, sometimes the craft doesn’t look like what it should suppose to look like, which makes me really sad. I’m more of a visual learner so seeing people create the craft for themselves would help me a lot. I honestly hate hash tags a bit. Like you mentioned, hash tags are really repetitive. Therefore, whenever I hashtag I try to hashtag something unique and something not ordinary to spice things up.
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Hi Jade,
I agree with you that people may get caught up in live blogging without realizing the consequences of doing that. As you said by quoting the article readers of live blogs tend to feel like because it is a live blog the content is more factual and less opinionated because it is happening in the moment and not afterwards when the blogger has time to process the events and come up with their response. Of course, as you said, this idea is not true. Many facts can be skipped over or misinterpreted through error of blogging in the moment, only so much information is available to any given person in the moments of an event or right after. While live blogging may give you the gist of what is happening the gist is never completely accurate and so live blogging is not more factual and less opinionated than blogging at a later date. I am not saying live blogging doesn’t have its place and can be enjoyable, like everyone at an event using the same hashtag so that you can see the event from anywhere. I think you put it well when you said it is easy to get caught up in the idea of live blogging, I just think we need to make sure we stay grounded while interacting with a live blog. Great post Jade!
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I agree that live blogging can be a way to engage your audience, because it definitely gives them something to always read and always want to follow. My issue with live blogging comes into play with awards shows and television shows that I am trying to keep up with. I admit, I am culprit of live blogging myself but when the VMA’s are on for example, I really try my hardest to stay off of Twitter.
All of the ignorant statements and rants that go on, on top of memes made makes Twitter so unappealing when award shows are on. They always say that kids are the most honest, but I think our generation takes honesty into a whole different field because it becomes bullying almost, although if I was a celebrity I would not care.
I also hate when live blogging ruins shows or movies. You cannot even read reviews because a hashtag can pull up something you did not want to read, and that is so frustrating. I think in general with live blogging and social media we just need to be conscious of using the internet how we would want it to be used by others that we follow on social media.
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Hi there Jade!
Nice post! I think you do a great job of capturing the essence of what live blogging is all about. Interestingly enough, live blogging has proven to be a much greater challenge than I anticipated. I don’t think I expected to have such a hard time with it. It also felt weird on my blog- almost out of place. In fact, my liveblog post got very little traffic at all. Perhaps it is because I didn’t having of great significance going on at the time of my post.
The only effective live blog I have ever seen was one from Apple. They were updating their blog live as a conference as new products like the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch were announced. In that case, live blogging was super useful because as readers, we got the updates as quick as possible.
However, with something like my own blog, I think my stories are more appreciated when retold in the form of a story as opposed to something going on “right this moment.”
I guess it really depends on the nature and personality of your blog. Live blogging works for some and not for others!
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Hi Jade!
I can see what you’re saying about the idea that it seems backwards for people to think that live blogs are more factual than actual stories that are more developed and take more time to write. However, I do believe that when someone takes more time to write a story, they naturally begin inserting some of their own personal biases and opinions into their work, whether they realize it or not. I think this is just a part of human nature. But this natural bias is what people are trying to avoid when they choose to read live blogs rather than longer articles and news stories. I do agree with your point that even if the news being reported in live blogs isn’t always entirely accurate, it still seems more attractive to people because it has the same kind of “breaking news” format as people see on television. Only this is more convenient for people who are at work or in other situations where they have access to the internet but can’t watch TV. And even though the news reporting is not always giving accurate info, I still like looking at live blogs for breaking news updates because even if the information is not entirely true, it still is the most recent update that people know of up until that point.
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I liked your post! I like how we brought up similar and different points on live blogging. I especially liked when you mentioned the problem with hashtags. In the twitter world, or any social media nowadays, hashtags are a great source to find the source of important information or to even see the opinion of the public. While that is a positive aspect of hashtags, there is always a downfall. Hashtags are widely used but not always properly used. I like how the article captured that view of hashtags. Hashtags are extremely important in different forms of live blogging because it allows the reader to quickly access information. People love to quickly access information.
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Hey Jade, the facts you stated about how effectively live blogging is compared to regular blogging was pretty interesting. Having 300% more views is a great difference and I could see why this happens. The breaking news aspect you mention makes sense as sometimes blogs become too wordy. To go along with your ideas I feel our generation has a lot of visual learners and rather see than read, which is why so many posts/videos become vital in a matter of seconds. For example, playing sports compared to watching it. I’m pretty sure people I know rather participate in sports than to watch it on a couch. Hence, live blogging allows the connection of the blogger to his or her audience that establishes an overall chemistry. I agree on how hashtags could become annoying after you see the same one over and over again. Creating a unique one like we did in class is a great idea to establish with your audience since it’ll be easier to locate the blog, posts, and etc. We all rather hear the breaking news as they unfold rather than hearing it from a friend thus why live blogging is effective. But of course it’s not for everyone so it’s really up to how effective the blogger could be with or without.
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Hi Jade,
You bring some interesting points about live blogging. I liked how you started talking about repetitions. I wrote similar to what you’re saying on Ashley’s comment. It really depends on what story you are reading. Because if there is some minor news like Giants won the game. I don’t want to see the same thing over and over on my feed. But if there is a disaster i want to read each and every posts/twits to keep up with everyone’s story. Because each will have different experience and that is much better to read because even though it’s the same stuff, every one will have different way of showing it. In that case live blogging can be really useful tool. I also liked you point that no everyone knows how to use hash tag properly. And sometimes it will put the most random story on the page. Some people write the longest hash tag with all lower cases and it’s just annoying to read. They are the best way of collecting common information. Overall it was a nice post to read with very good points.
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Hi Jade!
I was really intrigued by the first point that you made about how live blogs are getting 300% more views. As you said, live blogs are really popular because of how they provide content in a way that more so resembles breaking news. I think this has a lot to do with the type of information our generation craves. We are, for the most part, interested in the rapid distribution of information that we consider valuable. Whether that consists of fashion updates from the golden globes or breaking Boston marathon bombing information, there is an obvious need for fast and accurate news. As I touched on briefly in my other comment, I think that Twitter is a really good example of this. It caters completely to the short, fast and direct characteristics of news that people of today’s generation crave. I do agree with you though, live blogging does create a higher risk for errors. Because of how fast the blogger is trying to relay information, the chance of risk increases greatly. I would think that like the article said, blog posts are more factual. I think in this instance, the blogger is only concerned about pushing out the cold hard facts about whatever it is that they are covering. That said, I do think live blogging can be very valuable, as long as the individual doing so is being very careful about what is written.
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Hi Jade,
I think you bring up some really great points about live blogging. I think that live blogging is great because it enables people to quickly get information about current events at the tips of their fingers. This is great for people who are busy or don’t have a lot of time to spend reading the news but still want to be updated. I think that when readers feel like live blogging is more factual rather than opinionated, it is because they think that since bloggers are writing about it as it happens, they are less likely to form an opinion and just report the news. After an event happens and many people share their perspectives on the implications of what happened, people are more likely to either incorporate those opinions into their writing or form new opinions. For this reason, it feels like live blogging is just raw details about the event itself. Since it is happening so fast, the audience might think that bloggers are so busy trying to update readers that they don’t have the time to insert their opinions into the posts. I totally agree with the point you brought up about the appeal of live blogging – the readers get to feel like they are apart of the news as it is happening.
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Hey Jade,
I really agree with your comments regarding breaking news, which I also touched on in my comment on Ashley’s post. Readers are much, much more attracted to quick burst of factual updates rather than unnecessary side information or “fluff.” In this sense, live blogging addresses that need perfectly. It is presenting the news just as its happening, as opposed to waiting for all the details for a complete story. Also, shorter pieces of information are much easier to edit and check for any grammar or editing errors.
But the problem that can arise is once the live blogging is “done,” there may be early information that is incorrect and misleading. It is important for bloggers to edit and correct information as they go.
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Hey Jade! Good post! I like how you pointed out the fact that people are more driven to get news from their social media/live blog because it is so consistent. As to whether or not the news is valid I suppose depends on which live blog you get your information from. I do feel that because those writers are going at such a quick pace that it would be hard for them to make a post that is based off of opinion, even though they may not always be accurate. I do agree with you though that the news articles that are not done through live blogging are more valid than those that are sent out as soon as the news is heard because they have more time to research the subject they are writing up on and they are also able to sit down and make sure that everything they are saying makes sense and whether or not it is acceptable to include their opinion within their writing.
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Hello Jade,
I think you did a great job summarizing the overall point of the the article. I definitely agree with the point that people need to verify what they’re reading. It’s quite fascinating that people feel that these live blogs are more reliable. I think this definitely has to do with the comfort of the viewers. People tend to rely heavily on the fact on how things look, and how things suit them. Then they start beginning what they do or read is 100% factual. I realized after taking this course how many things are actually on blogs. Like last weeks article of Bleacher Report. I didn’t know that it was a blog, and I just read everything there like it was all truth. I’m sure that it get’s checked etc. but its amazing that when you really like the format and comfortable with something that you just trust everything it has to say. Really puts in perspective by bringing yourself out of that setting and analyzing it from a different view point.
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