-
In a webinar this week, I covered some basic Twitter techniques for journalists and mentioned live-tweeting trials and meetings as an example. Thursday, Lisa Fernandez of the San
Jose Mercury News live-tweeted a sentencing for the first time: -
Lisa had written some A-matter before heading to the courtroom, and editor Patty Hannon updated with Lisa’s tweets. Later in the office, Lisa polished the story into a more “writerly” version.
-
Ex-Fry’s exec to serve 6 years – San Jose Mercury NewsBy Lisa Fernandez lfernandez@mercurynews.com There was a time when Omar Siddiqui, who was known as “Mr. S” in Las Vegas, would snap his f…
-
In a direct message, Lisa told me: “You should know, I’ve been AVID twitter cynic. Till now.” I’m pleased that I helped her see the value of a useful tool for journalists.Lots of court reporters are showing the value of tweeting trials and hearings. Ron Sylvester of the Wichita Eagle has been doing this for years:
-
Interview with Ron Sylvester about using Twitter as a reporting tool …Sep 25, 2008 … trial coverage is not unheard of. The Wichita Eagle’s courts reporter Ron Sylvester says his Twitter coverage has …
-
Ron Sylvester | What the Judge Ate for Breakfast | Wichita Eagle BlogsBy Ron Sylvester | Tagged as dna, evidence, innocence, old cases, old …. The first defendant to stand trial in a federal food stamp f…
-
Patricia Doxsey of the Daily Freeman in Kingston, N.Y., does an excellent job of live-tweeting trial coverage:
-
Live tweets from the trial of Jarrin ‘Phat Boy’ RankinKINGSTON – The man who authorities say set up the February 2010 murder of Charles “C.J.” King Jr.
-
Mike Cruz of the San Bernardino Sun is another court reporter who live-tweets frequently:
-
The Sun feeds the tweets from court proceedings and crime Twitter feed into a widget on courts page on the news site:
-
My initial post here failed to include the outstanding live-tweeting of the Joshua Komisarjevsky murder trial by the New Haven Register. The jury is deliberating now on whether to give him the death sentence. Reporter Luther Turmelle has been live-tweeting the trial on the @nhrlive account, which the Register uses solely for live-tweeting (a great idea).
-
NHRLIVE: Jury in 5th day of deliberations in Komisarjevsky caseNEW HAVEN – A Superior Court jury found Joshua Komisarjevsky guilty of capital felony in the July 2007 murders of three members of the Pe…
-
A New York Time story last year noted Turmelle’s use of live-tweeting from court:
-
Twitter Reporting Blanketed Connecticut Murder TrialNo television cameras were there to record the scene, but people around the state and beyond in offices and family rooms still followed e…
-
Jacob Sanders pointed out to me in a tweet that the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin has been live-tweeting court developments relating to ownership of the Dodgers:
-
Larry Altman of the Daily Breeze also has live-tweeted trials, though he hasn’t done one recently, so I didn’t have some tweets to add from him. Who are some other court reporters who live-tweet trials and hearings regularly?
A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom
December 9, 2011 by Steve Buttry
Lisa Fernandez, the reporter featured at the top of this post, asked the following question (in a comment on an earlier version of this that I deleted because updates were posting from Storify as new takes:
“I have a question: Do reporters JUST tweet, or are they simultaneously filing traditional stories for the web too? At the Mercury News, we usually file A-matter so that when the tweets go out, the editors can top off the story and post that too.”
My answer: I’ve seen a lot of approaches: Live-tweets fed into a CoverItLive or ScribbleLive liveblog, then the reporter writes a brief summary to top that. Your approach would work better for a sentencing, where you could write A-matter, than for a day of testimony. I encourage trying multiple approaches and choosing the one that works best for you and your editor or for a particular day’s story.
LikeLike
In late September, Brooke Adams of The Salt Lake Tribune live-tweeted a child welfare hearing for Joshua Powell. Powell’s wife, Susan, went missing two years ago, and Josh has been named the only official person of interest in the case.
He moved from Utah to Washington and lived with his father, who was arrested on child pornography charges. That caused major interest in an already highly charged local case. So when Brooke tweeted the goings-on, The Tribune embedded the feed into the story so readers who were not on Twitter could follow the proceedings live, as well.
Our analytics showed that more than twice the normal percentage of readers spent 10 minutes or more on the story.
LikeLike
[…] Comments « A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] as her notebook. She sets up a trial liveblog using CoverItLive or ScribbleLive and liveblogs or live-tweets (feeding the tweets into the liveblog) the trial narrative through the day. She keeps an offline […]
LikeLike
[…] blogged suggestions for live-tweeting, with separate posts on live-tweeting high school sports, trials and meetings. I blogged about why editors should be active on Twitter, why retweets aren’t […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] also blogged about livetweeting trials and high school football games. If you’re covering a routine meeting of a city council, […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom […]
LikeLike
[…] A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom (2011) […]
LikeLike