What Live-Blogging Looks Like

Dan Hoffman, from the Randolph Hills Civic Association, was our volunteer photographer this morning, and he insisted on taking a picture to show what live-blogging the Montgomery County Council meetings actually looks like. Not very glamorous.

And, as an aside, because Council President Nancy Floreen asked me the other day, my explanation of how live-blogging differs from “mainstream” news coverage: It’s like the difference between a painting and a photograph. The blog provides context and more personal content — an image or impression, not a transcript. I don’t take down every word (although I get a lot of them) or even every thought. I capture what I think are the words and thoughts which make up the essence of what’s being said.

And, of course, it’s entirely dependent on a good wireless signal, an electrical outlet (for those long meetings) and, speaking as a hearing-disabled person, officials who remember to speak into the microphones.

 Barnaby Zall