Election Coverage Recap

After a semester of perusing the internet for coverage of the 2008 presidential election, the conclusion that I have come to is that there is a lot more “stuff” out there than I thought there would be. Media outlets are going beyond the traditional news story to offer new ways of coverage.

• USA Today has their state-by-state coverage map, offering local coverage by a national news service. The map itself is easy to navigate, attractive and informative.
  

• XM Radio launched at 24 hour election coverage station, POTUS ’08.

• CNN’s politics page has a whole section titled “Videos in Politics”

• YouTube and CNN hosted the “YouTube Debates.” The debates are citizen driven, with individuals submitting questions on YouTube. These questions are then used in moderated debates with the presidential hopefuls.

• More clips and full episodes from television are making their way onto the internet. Though this is not a new tactic, it continues to draw more people to the internet for their news. I watch Meet the Press with Tim Russert every week, but never on Sundays. The entire show is viewable online, with shorter clips from the episodes titled by content at the bottom of the page.

These are just a few of the examples of things that media outlets are doing to utilize new media and draw in readers. The interactive media is supplementing the news story, and in some cases, replacing it. That is not to downplay the import of the basic news story. It still is the most prevalent form of journalism around and the most easy to create. Still, media is tailoring their coverage to feed readers desires. It’s clear to see that it must be working, with more interactive tools coming up everyday.