Liveblogging may be new to India. But the editors must look at the phenomenal pull of live blogs. They will be stunned at the advantages that live blogs bring.
Advantage 1
Liveblogs attract more page views that any conventional form of writing. This has been established by a study done by Dr Neil Thurman and Anna Walters of the Journalism School of City University of London. The two researchers, who studied the reach of live blogs run on Guardian.co.uk, published their mind blowing findings in Digital Journalism (Volume 1, Issue 1, 2013).
The two researchers found that the Guardian.co.uk live blogs attract 300% more page views than conventional articles.
Advantage 2
Live blogs outperform picture galleries, getting 219% more visitors. This finding of Dr Neil Thurman and Anna Walters should trigger a rethink among all online editors. Clearly, live blogs have all the makings of a killer application when it comes to online writing.
Advantage 3
The third finding of the two researchers is no less dramatic. According to them, readers are twice as likely to participate in a live blog as in conventional articles. This makes live blogs the ideal application to build interactivity on websites.
Advantage 4
Live blogs are the best way to report a fast breaking story. Each new development can be posted immediately as an independent post. There is no limitation to postings because each post is complete in itself. There is also no need to rehash the existing story, written in the conventional format, as is the case now.
Advantage 5
A great advantage of live blogs is that they can be browsed in offices without disturbing others. This is not so in the case of television, which is distracting.
Live blog clearly is the first storytelling format that is unique to the net. It cannot be used in any other medium — be it radio, TV or print. On the net, it is the king — when it comes to reporting a developing story with multiple elements.
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