stevemullis[dot]net

CoverItLive is a , free (sort of) Web-based live blogging platform that can allow news organizations or bloggers to update, in real time, an event or breaking news story. It has been used and touted by both Newsweek and Seattle’s The Stranger. From the creators:

CoveritLive’s web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message. Our ‘one-click’ publishing lets you drop polls, videos, pictures, ads and audio clips as soon as they come to mind. Comments and questions from your readers instantly appear but you control what gets published. Try our software for your next live blog. Your readers will love it.

I think this might be a little before its time. Live blogging, in theory, works. Through blogs at the Orlando Sentinel, we’ve done live blogging of golf tournaments, NASCAR races, football games and even of the 2008 CES Trade Show in Las Vegas, Nev. All of those worked well with sporadic, well-written updates to their respective blogs.

Having a scrolling, streaming update log, including reader interaction, would seem too easy a thing to spiral out of control and turn into nothing more than a glorified chat session. Live blogging via the traditional method (if you can call something created a few years ago ‘traditional’) still allows you to moderate comments from trolls and put a little thought before posting. Not only that, CIL ties the reader to the page, chaining them to one spot. People don’t have time for that. I think the average reader looks at a news Web site less than five minutes a day. They aren’t going to stick around just to read chatty updates about a sporting event. In this battle, quality will always win out over quantity.

The quicker we post, the more prone to mistakes, errors and lapses in judgment we become. Would journalists live blogging an event in such an instant format be responsible for off-the-cuff remarks or perhaps responding to commenter with a curt response? What about issues of libel? As great as technology is, we can’t let it overshadow that journalistic integrity and those ethics we are supposed to hold so dear.

Admittedly, I have not used this software so I should not be so quick to judge. From a bloggers standpoint, especially if you are one with an established audience, this is a great idea. A blogger is not bound by many of the rules and forces that journalists must hold to, even in the changing technological landscape. From a journalism standpoint I think this would be a dangerous product to implement, even in the most benign of scenarios such as live blogging a parade or charity event.

We put up the walls of copy-editors, senior editors and other checks and balances to not only protect us from ourselves, but to protect our readers from having to sort through the drivel. Breaking down those walls opens us up to more criticism, more liability and a lessening of our credibility as news organizations. All of the information is already out there for the public to find, we are meant to help filter that content into a coherent and cogent conversation. If that conversation is something they can get from an instant message chat room or Web forum, what good are we?

Like I said, great idea, but probably not yet ready to be adopted by a major news organization, even those that are pioneering and championing the online journalism movement. This is related to something I mentioned earlier about “understanding technology before implementing technology.” With each technological step, organizations need to make sure they don’t slough off their journalistic ideals, ethics and mission of truth in order to jump on board with the next new thing.

I’m a geek for sure, but I am also a journalist, and those two things are sometimes difficult to compromise.