Posted on 01/31/2006 8:15:40 AM PST by Mannaggia l'America
Traditional and new media will join forces for a multipronged, interactive approach to covering Tuesday night's State of the Union address.
ABC and AOL News late last week began soliciting opinions on what ordinary citizens think about the state of the union via a poll, text messaging and even videos in a type of "citizen journalism" in which the citizens tell journalists--and their fellow citizens--what they think about the nation's course.
The efforts will ramp up Tuesday night, when ABC News and AOL will carry President Bush's speech (and the Democrats' response), and offer the reactions of viewers and real-time bloggers beginning shortly after 6 p.m. PT, when Bush addresses the joint session of Congress.
Elements of "The People's State of the Union" will appear not only on the AOL and ABC News Web sites but also during coverage on ABC News' wireless and broadband channels, its special report Tuesday night, and in segments of "World News Tonight," "Nightline" and "Good Morning America."
Lewis D'Vorkin, editor-in-chief of AOL News, said Monday that this creates an opportunity to blend the best of traditional and new media to create participatory journalism.
"We're using each other's core strengths and cross-promoting and creating the most interactive state of the union online, from text to video to user-generated comment, which is really what online news is all about these days," D'Vorkin said.
ABC News Digital executive producer Michael Clemente agreed, noting that the new technology is providing a forum that didn't previously exist.
"It's the best kind of democracy. We present the message, collect the feedback instantly and let our viewers participate in the conversation," he said.
Former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson will take users' questions and then answer them on ABC News Now and AOL. On ABC, correspondent Jake Tapper will monitor bloggers' reaction to the speeches. Citizens' responses will appear on AOL.
It's a modified version of what ABC News and AOL have been doing since the 2004 campaign, when they provided real-time reaction to the presidential debates and polling.
"People want to participate in the process. People want to be able to (see a) reaction in real time, to be able to contribute their thoughts and create their own content and to see it played back in an environment where others can also view it and participate and react," D'Vorkin said.
Sounds like a presidential gang-bang...
I think you should add an Freep alert to the title. This could be fun!
I had ABC (sound down) as I was playing guitar around 10:45 Eastern.
They had a crawl along the bottom and the occasional splash of a user (anonymous, of course) comment. Don't know if it was strictly AOL subscribers, but if it was, it pretty much sums up what I've always thought of that group.
You can imagine what ABC/AOL chose to run....."Bush gets an F"..."We've got this Medicare benefit and now we don't want it (yeah right)"...."Get rid of SUVs".....and so on and so on.
FR is sanity central but the asylum doors have been well and truly unlocked. We wonder who out there lives their everyday lives while waiting for a virtual pat on the head from Washy Deesy? It's these losers.
Then Charlie/Diane pulled every media member's favorite stunt.....INTERVIEWING OTHER MEDIA MEMBERS. Can you say circle j***?
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