“Live stream journalism began from sports. Years ago, when slow internet speeds didn’t permit viewing good-quality, fast online broadcasts, people began to follow sporting events (especially football) through live blogs,” described New Genres and Special Projects Officer Alexander Polivanov at Riga-based Russian online news media Meduza. 

At a workshop he gave at the DigiStory Digital Storytelling Conference [AM] titled “How to Write for a Live Broadcast: Online Broadcasting and Chronicling,” he said that live-blogging is the journalism genre through which everything can be described. 

“It’s as if it’s an endless meta-commentary, through which can be described not only that which is happening on the ground, but also through the commentators’ cameras, among the fans, and so on.”

“A chronicle relies on events that have a beginning but when they will end is unknown. Say, major catastrophes, which are constantly supplied with new details. In the case of chronicles, there’s no need for a distinctive voice, since in the case of a constantly updated feed and a diversity of sources a distinctive individual approach is not desirable. In the case of online, when the event is complete, it’s necessary to emphasize the individual author’s voice,” says Polivanov. 

The author becomes the familiar brand through whose help the audience “sticks” to the website. Polivanov believes this process of “sticking” cannot take place during very brief events, as well as those that are devoid of intrigue. 

“There’s no point live-blogging, say, during a military parade, since there’s nothing to add to the basic operation. There’s no intrigue.”

Polivanov advises live-blogging with 2–3 journalists (any more and it will be a mess), but only after dividing the roles scrupulously and in advance.

“The audience should trust the live-blogging journalist, feeling that he is at ease but at the same time doesn’t lose his level of vigilance. Otherwise he can be like the football commentator who after his lame and uninhibited jokes was dismissed from his job by the end of the match. The roles can be constructed, for example, in the likeness of good cop/bad cop, when one of the moderators mostly complains, while the other tries to see the positive. Or, one focuses mainly on the action, while the other accompanies with related trivial matters,” he says. 

Polivanov cautions journalists to avoid pointing to each other’s small mistakes while live-blogging. Let them do that after, offline. But felt on the live blog should be the free style and language, which are based, of course, on the huge work done in advance (collecting data on facts, statistics, history, and even clothing and the weather).

“The main principle is this: begin live-blogging when you feel that it will be interesting for the audience and you have something to add to the main event,” he says. 

Polivanov described one long and laborious live-blogging experience on Meduza, which began 10 minutes after receiving news of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov’s assassination.

“It was immediately clear that this was headline news and new information was going to surface during the entire night, since [the authorities] were hot on the heels of the murderer. There was no time to prepare big reports, and we were live-blogging from several places in the city. In such extreme situations, the most valuable factor is time. Of course there were long reports and analyses but much later.”

Speed and tools to insert quotes into the text are important. 

“I, for example, can’t allow myself to watch live streams in their entirety. It’s good when succinct excerpts highlighting the important details are offered. I think live-blogging is a very important genre in terms of getting content across quickly in the digital environment.”

Nune Hakhverdyan