How news sites can cover an election night – examples from Norway

Norway went to the polls tonight – on September 14th. It was an event which inspired new and creative ways of doing online journalism. Here is an overview of how the biggest news sites in Norway decided to cover the election night.

Election nights are exciting – and quite a challenge for journalists to cover. For newspaper reporters it has always been a risky game as they usually had to file their copy long before the final results were counted. Because of this TV would be the channel of choice for most users where you could follow the counting of votes live.

This has changed. More than at any earlier election the news web sites this year took an active part not only in distributing the latest results but also in giving people a platform to discuss the elections. In fact we see a new user habit on big events like elections: Many people watch television and visit web sites simultaneously. More and more web services like Twitter and Facebook are being used to discuss what they watch on TV, creating a new form for social experience around the televised event.

Without going into details of Norwegian politics, I have written this overview of how the major news sites in the country decided to cover the election night, especially with regard to interactive tools. I do not intend to evaluate the journalistic quality, rather the main purpose is to pinpoint some of the new techniques used in addition to the traditional reporting tools. In my opinion it documents how journalism is changing in the digital world. Also it may provide useful tips for online journalists covering election nights in other countries.

A few conclusions:

• News sites try to be as quick as possible in presenting the latest results
• Several of the sites had prepared interactive graphics which where automatically updated as the results came in
• Services like Coveritlive and Twitter were used to report live from the different party headquarters
• News sites increasingly provide a platform for users to discuss the election resuts with each other. This was done by integrating Twitter hashtags into the news content as well as through use of Facebook Connect.

Here is how the biggest news sites covered the election night

VG.no

Norway’s largest news site with 3,5 million unique visitors weekly

Election night coverage:

Like other news sites, VG had reporters at all the party headquarters.  As the only site they also provided live video from all the political parties. Also VG streamed live from major events during the night, such as the party leaders debate. The latest results were given prominent space on the top of the front page as well as in live updated graphics. This included thumbnail photos of all the politicians who seemed to be elected to the parliament at any time during the night.

Reporters used Twitter to report – and all the Twitter feeds were aggregated by using Coveritlive, an online service for live blogging. Together with the live blogging readers were invited to ask questions or comment.

During the election campaign VG has been aggregating Twitter messages from politicians from all parties through the service Twittertinget (“the Twitter parliament”)

A number of steps were taken to involve readers actively during the election night:

• Users were invited to contribute in the discussion forum
• Also users were invited to describe their emotions in one word. This was aggregated into a word cloud, clearly inspired by New York Times’s socalled Word Train when Barack Obama was elected president of the USA.

Dagbladet.no

Norway’s second largest news site with 2 million unique visitors weekly

Election night coverage:

Dagbladet put a lot of emphasis on quick access to results from each local commune on its front page. Coverage was quite traditional – lacking many of the interactive features of VG. There were comparatively fewer options for readers to express their own opinions. Like some of the other sites, Dagbladet used small polls to measure the opinions of readers.

Some features:

• Live updated thumbnails of politicians elected to the parliament
• Live studio with feeds from reporters as well as readers. The page also included live streaming of the election coverage of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK.

NRK.no

State-owned national broadcasting corporation – Norway’s BBC. Increasingly stronger web presence, currently at 1,9 million unique visitors weekly.

Election night coverage:

NRK dominates television coverage of election nights in Norway and many have considered it to be the best source for getting the latest results and analysis.

However, the web site did not stand out in the same way. But also NRK offered live blogging through Coveritlive this night in addition to streaming the TV broadcast.

The web site experienced technical problems during parts of the night.

Aftenposten.no

Norway’s second largest newspaper. The news site has 1,1 million unique visitors weekly.

Election night coverage:

Also Aftenposten used Coveritlive as a tool for live blogging. Reporters tweeted from the headquarters of the four biggest political parties – and the Twitter messages were aggregated in the live blogging tool. In addition to reporters in the field editors added additional information, like useful links, photos and analysis, from the editorial headquarters. However, Aftenposten allowed only very few comments from readers in their live blogging event.

Graphics of the latest results were presented prominently on the front page as well as in a comprehensive interactive graphic.

Other features:

• Video interview with politicians as well as the newspaper’s political editor commenting on the results
• Aggregation of political blogs through the cooperating service Valgprat.no
• Experts summing up the election campaign in a multimedia special
• The Oslo site Oslopuls.no graded the different party gatherings according to atmosphere, entertainment and food and drinks

(Disclaimer: I work for Aftenposten.no, although I have not been involved in planning the election coverage)

Nettavisen.no

Online newspaper with about 1 million unique users weekly

Election night coverage:

Nettavisen provided, as all the other news sites, comprehensive coverage of the results and continuous analysis. In addition Twitter was used to add reader comments about the elections. This was done by integrating Twitter feeds in articles. Also the service Twitterlisten.no was used, where Twitter messages about the election were aggregated through the hashtag #valg09.

Worth noting is a page advicing readers how they could best follow the news on election night, including the services of Nettavisen’s competitors.

TV2.no

Norway’s largest commercial television channel. News site with almost 1 million unique users weekly.

Election night coverage:

TV2 offered live streaming of its television broadcast together with interactive elements encouraging participation from users.

Most original was the use of Facebook Connect to include reader comments. Readers could log in with their Facebook account and participate in discussions with their own friends as well as with other users who were participating in the event.

On the same page TV2 offered live Twitter feeds with election hashtags.

Tagged as: journalism, media, Norway, Twitter