Live Blogging: The Experience

I’m really glad to have been led to get through my first blogging experience as an assignment for a class. I think it’s a great way to share information with people who for any reason were unable to attend. I know that, had it not been assigned, it would have taken me some time to gather the courage to do it.


Overall, I thought it was an interesting and different experience. I feel that live blogging during an event certainly takes away from your experience as a member of the audience: it is difficult to participate while typing what is going on.  It is likely that you will miss some details as you struggle to record the previous comment and you have less time to observe the protagonist(s) which could cause the experience to feel less personal.


On the other hand, the ability to live blog an event is an empowering tool for a journalist (professional or citizen). For instance, the event that I blogged about was held in a small room and thus only the first 25 people to sign up were allowed to attend. I know that a lot more people would have wanted to be there, so it was motivating to think that in future events, I can actually let people know that I will be live blogging and they won’t have to miss out completely. It also makes the event accessible for people who couldn’t attend for geographical reasons or because the schedule didn’t work for them.

Getting through my first live blogging experience taught me a lot and made me realize that if this is a tool I want to start using, I need to practice lot. I’m sure I’ll continue to discover how to improve my live blogging skills, however in this first time I did learn several lessons that I will try to apply in the future:

Lesson # 1 – Aid yourself with a Specialized Software for Live Blogging

On the days prior to the event, several classmates had commented on Wordpress’ tools for live blogging. However, I use Blogger and couldn’t find anything on it meant to facilitate live blogging. I was a little nervous about having enough time to submit blog entries and start new ones as the event was going on. So I decided to give Coveritlive.com a chance. I don’t know whether it is the best live blogging software out there, but it certainly made the experience much easier than if I hadn’t used it. I look forward to future occasions when I actually have an online audience and can use the tools for interacting that it has.

Lesson # 2 – Get familiar with the Software before hand

Another thing I’m glad I did was to play around with Coveritlive.com before going to the event. This helped me save time and make use of more of its tools and features. For instance, I probably wouldn’t have had time to learn how to add links, if I hadn’t taken the time to figure it out before hand.

Lesson # 3 – Always Bring a Charger

Not much to say about this, except that I wish I had done it. My laptop is on the heavy side, so I try to avoid carrying any additional weight (the charger, in this case).

Unfortunately, the battery ran out and I had to switch to paper towards the end of the event. Had I had an online audience, they probably wouldn’t have been very happy with me.

Lesson # 4 – When possible, Live Blog in the language of the event.

I was unable to find an event to blog about that was in English, so I asked if I could go to one in Spanish. Although I was given the option to blog in Spanish, I decided to challenge myself and write in English. The problem is, each comment requires extra mental steps. If it’s in the same language, you only have to:

1. Listen
2. Analyze (optional)
3. Write

When you are translating you must:

1. Listen
2. Analyze/understand (not optional)
3. Translate
4. Write

Lesson # 5 – Let the Speaker know that you will be Live Blogging

This lesson might not be necessary if the audience is large enough for you to go unnoticed by the speaker. However, in the one I attended there were only 25 of us and the speaker. It was a U-shaped set up and I was sitting across from the speaker, which meant he saw me type non-stop as he was speaking. It made me uncomfortable because he probably thought I wasn’t paying attention. I regret not letting him know before he started speaking. He was an online journalist, so I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded at all.

Lesson # 6- Establish your purpose for Live Blogging that particular event.

Any reason to live blog can be valid, but knowing what you hope to achieve with the activity can lead to better results. Important things to consider are:

• Who your audience is?
• Do you want to interact with the audience?
• Do you want to inform?
• Do you want to entertain?
• Do you want to promote something?
• Are you trying to persuade?
• Do you want to simply narrate to your audience what is going on? Or do you want to include your opinion?

Answering these questions before hand will help make the style of the blog more consistent. As I went back to revise what I had written, I realized that my blog had a little bit of everything: some observations, some commentary, and even a couple of jokes.

I plan on seeking future opportunities to live blog, hopefully feeling confident enough to invite people to follow it online. I will make sure to apply the lessons learned and be on the lookout, for I’m sure that I have many more to learn.