Media’s Coverage of the Election

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Jeff Derderian, Media Critic

If this were an election of online coverage, only one of the local TV stations and one Web site could claim any kind of a victory. Remember, what is great about the internet is the ability to get information posted quickly and accurately.

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
The Providence Journal appears to be sitting this one out––at least for now. At 7:21, the Pro Jo had just 3 election stories on their so called "Breaking News" section on their home page. The most recent story was posted at 6:15pm. So that means in 1-hour and 6-minutes the ProJo had no other election news to share with the state of RI. Below the breaking news blog–5 stories total. But here's the catch–2 of the 5 stories are the same stories listed in the breaking news blog section.

GoLocalProv.com

As you will see the Web platform takes election coverage and your right to vote very seriously. Case in point, by 7am GoLocal was off covering the candidates–hearing from Catherine Taylor, Lincoln Chafee, and Frank Caprio–all before 8am. By 8 o'clock tonight GoLocal had posted more than 20-different stories and nearly 20-different videos.

One video golocalprov.com posted at two o'clock today was shared over a hundred times on FaceBook. So what does that mean? About 30,000 eyeballs saw the posting. That's coverage you won't find anywhere else.

CHANNEL 10

If you "Turn to 10" for Web coverage–here's what you'll find. Channel 10's coverage so far includes 6 stories posted and 2-video stories posted.

CHANNEL 6

Channel 6 stands out as far as Web design goes, but the content on election night is less than special by the 8 pm hour. They have 4 video stories posted and lots of other non-relevant local news.

WRNI RADIO

RI's public radio station has two election related stories on its Web site and no video stories we can see.

CHANNEL 12

Out of our three TV stations, Channel 12 leads the pack with its online content and coverage. Lots of graphics–headlines that grab–and a good variety of election coverage. At last check, they had 6 election-related stories plus 2 video stories posted.

With so many people surfing tonight for information, nuggets, and video that takes you to where the candidates are or where they have been today, tonight is an opportunity to inform within the digital space. Clearly some of the "established" media outlets around here are apparently still stuck in the 90s when it comes to internet coverage.

With a half-an-hour or so to go before the polls close, we're just getting started.

Jeff Derderian is a former television news reporter and anchor both in Providence and Boston. He is one of the founders of the Station Education Fund. He can be reached at [email protected]