Fast Company’s Austin Carr writes about and has pictures of the Technology used in CNN’s Election Coverage last night…
Walking into CNN’s newsroom is like walking into Best Buy during the holidays: gigantic flat panel displays are plastered all over the hangar-like space; people are running around frantically with laptops and Blackberrys and iPads; touchscreens galore dot the scene; and as I watch Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper try to tame opinionated pundits, there are layers of digital projections not visible to the naked eye. It’s a newsroom for the 21st century, and during last night’s hectic mid-term elections, CNN gave Fast Company a behind-the-scenes look at how technology has impacted its news coverage.
Posted in CNN, FNC, MSNBC on November 3, 2010 by icn2
I’ve gotten emails asking why I haven’t tee’d off on MSNBC for using its bomb throwing talking heads to cover a news event last night instead of people trained to do the job.
My response is this. I complained long and loud about using talking heads during the 08 primaries. It had not impact. I complained about the meltdowns at the conventions. It had no impact. NBC’s Washington Bureau had a mini-revolt at a town hall bureau meeting which only temporarily forced the network to rein things in. But it was only temporary. Come the inauguration, they talking heads were back at it again and it’s been that way ever since. MSNBC doesn’t care. Phil Griffin doesn’t care. He’s doing what your basic broadcast entertainment programmer would do, ride the hot glove. Until there’s an embarrassment of colossal proportions that the News Division cannot wipe away easily, and last night’s Michelle Bachman interview doesn’t come close enough, nothing is going to change that. I tried to watch the network last night but frequently found myself switching over to CNN and its annoying Election Matrix and sardine can squished together panel discussion groups or FNC which suffered for not having Shepard Smith front the newscast – I started watching Fox Broadcast instead of FNC at one point because of the Shep “gap”. I switched because I just couldn’t take the incessant progressive partisan talking when I wanted to hear something a lot more grounded in reality than ideology. MSNBC only became watchable for extended periods at 2am when the bomb throwers left and a journalist took over with another panel…a panel that included a conservative. The horror!
Look, I know it’s wrong and you know it’s wrong. But MSNBC isn’t concerned with whether if it’s wrong or not and as long as they don’t end up hugely embarrassing the news division they’ll continue to ride the whirlwind with the bomb throwers. Given that, I have little interest in repeating myself. There’s only so many ways you can say “you’re wrong” before you get bored. And I’m bored.
Incidentally, I would generally agree with Mediaite that FNC’s coverage was probably on average the most consistent.
Related: Phil Griffin explains the cable news election night audience…
I note this because it more or less re-enforces what I wrote on Mediaite about cable news’ politics obsession being aimed at a particular demographic, the politics junkie.
CNN is noting its number for its digital platform…
CNN DIGITAL:
CNN.com Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Omniture)
* With nearly 80 million page views on Election Day, CNN.com experienced the highest traffic day of the year, and was up 61% over the prior 4-week average.
* CNN.com attracted 11.2 million unique visitors to the site, up 26% over the prior 4-week average and up 10% over the 2006 Midterm Elections day with more than
* Live video plays on the site were also up dramatically over the prior 4-week average with nearly a quarter million views, a 400% plus gain.
* CNN’s Politics Section was up nearly 100% over the prior 4-week average with more than 25 million page views.
* CNN’s politics blog (The Political Ticker) was up 62% over the prior 4-week average with more than 2 million views
CNN Mobile Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Bango)
* CNN Mobile proved valuable to millions of consumers seeking politics information on Election Day 2010, with more than 2.2 million unique visitors, a 30% increase over the prior 4-week average.
* Mobile web page views on Tuesday were also up 42% over the 4-week average with 7.3 million
BLOOMBERG TELEVISION PRESENTS ‘BLOOMBERG THE MENTOR’
This Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 9:00 PM/ET, Bloomberg Television will debut “Bloomberg The Mentor,” an original new series that features top CEOs mentoring small business owners across America.
Every entrepreneur hopes to strike it big, but the reality is that 80% of small businesses fail within the first 18 months. What if entrepreneurs from around the U.S. had the chance to get real-life advice from some of America’s best-known CEOs? This season, “Bloomberg The Mentor” tests that concept when four small business owners receive a crash course in management and strategy from top business executives.
In the series premiere, Jim Koch, founder and chairman of The Boston Beer Company, the largest independently owned American craft brewery and brewer of award-winning Samuel Adams beers, brings his national business expertise to the co-owners of Oceanside Ale Works in California. Read more »
