WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

The crowd goes wild for Obama, credit for photo goes to WashingtonTimes

First off let me say that we are truly blessed to have the technolgy that we do today.  The day of the convention I was in class until 9pm which made it impossible to watch the convention on televsion with all its sights and sounds.  However, using my tablet I was able to access NYT’s live blog and stay in touch with up to the minute news of exactly what was going on, right from my cramped desk amongst my marketing research classmates.

I beleive that the Live blog set out to be a substitute for those who were unable to watch it live, such as myself.  You did not get to see all the glamour and glitz of the venue but bloggers posted pictures along with their posts which gave readers a better feel of what was going on.  That is probably the part that surprised me the most.  When I think of live blogging I think of small tidbits of information, a retro form of tweeting if you will.  I was taken aback to see bloggers writing posts up to four paragraphs long, filled with insightful news.  Even posting images which must take time and accuracy to make sure it can go from one’s camera to the computer is a feat.

I really enjoyed this type of reporting and believe they succeded in achieveing their goal.  It wasnt as brief as a tweet which allowed for more imersion and you werent bored out of your mind by a rambling speaker on television.  The perfect middle ground in my opinion.  This is why they were so successful.  They mixed in different elements from actual tweets, real blog posts, as well as images of the night.  NYT also did not constantly update every few minutes.  The information was somwhat staggered so you werent overwhelmed by constant updates. (which I feel twitter can be at times)

NYT Reporters kept posts simple, concise, and interesting and that is exactly what a blog should be.

Multimedia Round-up Coverage

Now I will be the first to tell you that I am not a politically savvy individual.  But this slight flaw is what made me enjoy the Times’ multimedia coverage.  The interactive bubbles of the piece “At the National COnvention, the words they Used” were engaging and informational.  You really got a feel for the big issues facing the nation.

There were also the two pieces comparing Obama’s use of “I want” in his speech compared to Romney’s “I will” in his speech.  The two pieces highlight the phrases thorughout the respective candidadates speeches.  These peices really caught my attention and not to get too political here but, I beleive a presidential candidate should be confident in what he says and saying “I will” speaks alot more to me than saying “I want.”

The last piece I will discuss is the “Dodging the Police at the 1968 Democratic Convention.”  This blog does not really have anything to do with this years issues but you can see the history of the DNC and how far we have come since then.  Len’s blog includes images of riots, national guardsmen patroling streets, and civilians being dragged away.  While this year’s campaign are filled with pictures of cheering crowds and celbrities.  It really puts into persepctive how important these convetions are to our way of life.