Choosing A President: Assessing Online Election Coverage

This year, for the first time on a large scale, journalists used the Internet to tell the story of a presidential election. How did they do?

To address that question, we took advantage of this landmark occasion by coupling it with another first: Poynter's first seminar devoted to online newswriting.

We paired the 16 participants -- online reporters, producers, and editors and journalism teachers from the United States, China, Ethiopia, and Panama. Between 4 and 9 p.m. on Election Night, each team analyzed two sites and discussed what they found via e-mail. The goal was to assess, on deadline, how the sites used the Internet in their Election Night coverage, with a focus on interactivity and writing. We hope the participants -- and Poynter.org readers -- learn lessons about their craft and use them to produce better journalism.

The package was edited by Mindy McAdams, Jon Dube, Bill Mitchell, Sree Sreenivasan, and Chip Scanlan. Rochelle Lewis Lavin, Anne Conneen, and Tran Ha produced the package. Ricardo Ferro photographed the participants. Nancy Emineth provided logistical support.

-- Chip Scanlan, Reporting, Writing and Editing Group Leader

Lessons Learned

Team One: National Newspapers
NYTimes.com & Washingtonpost.com

Team Two: National Broadcast Outlets
MSNBC.com & CNN.com

Team Three: Opinion Websites
Slate.com & Salon.com

Team Four: Web-only Politics
Voter.com & Politics.com

Team Five: Swing-state Broadcast Stations
KYW.com & Clickondetroit.com

Team Six: Local Newspapers
The Tennessean & Austin360.com

Team Seven: Web-only vs. Newspaper
Richmond.com & Timesdispatch.com

Team Eight: International Websites
BBC.co.uk & CBC.ca.