Live Blogging: Inaccurate, Unedited Reporting

jcoronella — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:02:28 +0000

One of my pet peeves is live blogging. Live blogging, of course, is when a blogger tries to write about an event as it happens. It’s useless. No one wants to read inaccurate, unedited reporting. Maybe I’m just bitter that I’m at home this week, and not at Pubcon, and maybe I just can’t comprehend stream of consciousness writing, but I’ve never read a live blog that was at all useful.

For those of you living in a closet, I’m talking about people who try to keep up with a live speaker, or race to have the first post on breaking news. They just write as it happens. Have you ever tried it? It’s hard. And no one is good at it. There are lots of conference write-ups that are useful, and the authors above are great when they take the time to think about the post, and write clearly and concisely.

I read live bloggers regularly when they aren’t live blogging. I love their writing. I love their insight. I just can’t stand it when they try to be some sort of court stenographer.

Live blogging is shoddy journalism.

It’s a selfish disregard for reporting integrity.

Please stop.

Editors Note: Readers may note that the bloggers i mention live-blog better than I regular-blog. To that I say: “aren’t you glad I don’t live blog? Man, that would REALLY suck”

Editors Note #2:
I’ve pulled the individual bloggers from this post. I did not mean this as an attack on them, I simply feel that live blogging is beneath their skills and talents.

One more reason to hate live blogging

This post originated at the Online Marketer blog, home to marketing consultant John Coronella.

OnlineMarketer.com » PubCon

Live Blogging: Inaccurate, Unedited Reporting