It’s the top of the 8th inning in the World Series, Phillies vs. Yankees, at Yankee Stadium in New York. The score is 2-0, Phillies. The starting lineups for both teams are flashed on the screen, as well as the batting orders. Steven Baker (a blogger) writes “The addition of the DH to the Phillies lineup may give the Phillies an advantage because they can insert defensive-minded Ben Francisco to track down balls in Yankee Stadium’s spacious left and left-center fields. Francisco, a right-handed hitter, has decent power and speed, too. And the Phillies simply slide slugger Raul Ibanez to DH.”
Prior to the first pitch, a poll shows 52 percent of readers favored the Phillies to win the World Series, 48 percent favored the Yankees … pretty close poll. “First pitch to Rollins is bunted to Teixeira for the first out.” Those were the words of USA TODAY’S sports editor Steve Boreli. Accept, he’s not writing a sports column, he’s at the World Series ‘live blogging’.
Live blogging is a trendy new way of covering events, press conferences, meetings and yes, even sporting events such as the World Series. CoveritLive.com, ScribbleLive.com and Livejournal.com are just a few sites that are catering to the needs of serious bloggers. Whether they have a few followers on their sites or a few thousand, live blogging not only provides live information faster, but it also allows blog followers to view pictures and videos in real-time as well as participate in activities such as active polls.
This is not ‘chatting’ by any means, nor is it designed to give a reader ‘play-by-play’ action, it instead simply relays highlights, key points and even answers questions from readers. Many live blogging consoles are setup so that when viewers/readers are posting comments, only the person live blogging can see the comments. Comments are only made ‘public’ if the live blogger chooses to post it into the live console window. Not only does the reader have the ability to scroll up or re-read to see what was missed, but the console instantly replays when the event is over without any commercial interruptions or the banter and chatter of traditional commentators. –cp
