Election 2.0: blogs, video and mobile streaming out in force for local election coverage

The BBC’s coverage of today’s local elections will feature live blogging, with comments being expertly sifted by Newsnight and BBC News 24 presenter Emily Maitlis, assisted by leading political bloggers Iain Dale, Luke Akenhurst and Alix Mortimer.

The elections see 4000 seats up for grabs at 159 councils nationally, along with the London Mayoralty and the London Assembly.

“It’s become increasingly clear that the web has something extra to offer on election night. An elaborate network of opinion formers, activists and analysts collide online producing fact, rumour, and mood not found anywhere else.” Craig Oliver, editor of BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten, wrote on the BBC Editors Blog.

“While guarded politicians offer the official line on radio and TV, the web provides the unvarnished truth about what the parties are really thinking.”

Harnessing new web technology for election coverage is not exclusively the domain of national big guns. The Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo will have reporters at each of the 10 vote counts in the area, who will feed to a live blog accessible on both sites.

There will be newspaper staff at three of the counts - Liverpool, Wiral and Knowsley - using mobile phone technology to stream live reports and a TV unit will produce a video package of events. The final video version is expected to go live by 7am in time for the morning rush.

“Harnessing the new technology on the Post and Echo sites will enable us to bring the most comprehensive coverage of local elections to readers who now demand nothing less,” said Alastair Machray, editor of the Liverpool Echo, in a press statement.

The titles attempted online election coverage last year, which was viewed by over 4,000 people. The sites have since been relaunched and with improved technology the two expect the coverage to be a hit with voters.

BBC introduces registration scheme for blog comments

The BBC has opted for a registration system for comments on blogs and forum areas citing protection against spam as a deciding factor in making the change.
“It [registration] seems to be an effective balance between maintaining access to the blog and the standard of debate,” Giles Wilson, editor of the BBC News blogs, wrote in a blog post.

Wilson said similar systems implemented by The Guardian, Telegraph and Boing Boing had been taken into consideration by the corporation.

“…we’ve thought long and hard about the best thing to do, and believe that this is likely to be the most effective and efficient way of publishing as many comments as possible.”

Registration will be common across the site, said Wilson: once users have signed into one community area they will not have to repeat the process in separate sections.

BBC News and Sport websites show off new looks

The BBC News and Sport websites have today launched their revamped websites. Both editors admit the sites, which are the results of months of development in response to reader feedback, are works in progress.

It’s not a complete redesign, says Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC News website, on his blog, but more of a ’site refresh’. Here’s what has changed on both sites according to blog posts from Herrmann and Ben Gallop, head of BBC Sport Interactive:

BBC News

• Wider page layout
• More open design
• New masthead
• Centred pages
• Use of larger images – enabled by the wider page design
• Better incorporation of advertising in international version of the site
• Introduction of embedded audio and video within news pages, with links to this content placed higher on the page
• Cross-platform content – an area of the BBC News site will be created featuring highlights from TV and radio news programmes

BBC Sport

• Wider page layout
• Use of larger images
• Introduction of embedded audio and video within sports pages, with links to this content placed higher on the page
• More prominence for feature content – ‘high profile’ section for original sports journalism content now in middle of the page
• Better incorporation of advertising in international version of site

BBC stance on pulling images from social networks

The ease of availability of a picture does not remove the BBC’s responsibility to assess the sensitivities in using it, according to the editor of BBC News online.

Writing on the BBC Editors Blog, Steve Herman stated that the question of the ethics of pulling pictures from social networking sites has bee raised by colleagues during an editorial standards meeting.

As a result of that meeting a newsletter is produced, he wrote, summarising  discussions circulated to staff to offer guidance.

The advice offered to BBC reporters is that because material has been put into the public domain does not necessarily give the media the right to use it, primarily because the BBC would bring significantly greater public attention than would normally be expected.

The newsletter added that consideration on the original context and the impact of re-use to those who may be grieving or distressed must also be applied.

Legal, copyright and accuracy of the image should also be at the forefront of reporters minds when considering use of images from social sites.

Editor with BBC News leaves for NowPublic

Rachel Nixon, deputy world editor with BBCNews.com, is to join Canada-based ‘participatory news network’ NowPublic as its global news director, according to a press release posted on Alfred Hermida’s blog.

In her new role Nixon, who has worked for BBCNews.com for nine years, will be responsible for the editorial operations of the site’s citizen correspondents, who span 3,600 cities across more than 140 countries.

“The NowPublic team has blazed trails from day one and clearly mainstream media is now embracing the media model that NowPublic originated,” she said on her appointment.