How will you watch tonight's Vice Presidential debate? Will you be sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn on your lap? Or will you have a laptop on your lap–to follow commentary on the debate in real time via blogs, RSS, Twitter and the like?
Steve Rosenbaum has an interesting post on Huffington Post about watching the Obama-McCain debate last week while following live commentary on his laptop (along with a cute story about his son Twittering the debate). I watched the same way–and couldn't imagine doing it any other way. I'm already charging my laptop for tonight's debate.
Maybe this is an extreme form of ADD. Or maybe it's a much more interesting way to watch an ongoing news event. In a way, it's a bit like watching sports on TV, where the goings-on are narrated by an announcer and color commentator. Nobody broadcasts news events like a debate or speech that way (actually, the Daily Show tried a few years ago), but liveblogs, feeds, Twitter and other tools give us the ability to see and share reactions to the proceeding in real time.
This is an interesting phenomenon, and perhaps Rosenbaum and I are just freaky geeks. But I suspect we're hardly alone, especially among news/politics junkies. And maybe some enterprising news site (or broadcaster) can figure out a way to use this real-time commentary idea to revolutionize how news is presented, and how opinion of that news is shared.
I'll take the debate straight up, please. No Twitter feeds, no live blogs, no crawls on the bottom of the TV screen. I want to give my full attention to what the candidates are saying and how they are saying it. While that's going on, I don't really care what the rest of the world thinks about it.
Once the debate is done, I will care what some people have to say. I'd prefer that they take a little time to gather their thoughts instead of just spewing from the tops of their heads.
If a news story is about, say, an out-of-control fire sweeping through my town, then please give me all the live blogs, tweets and RSS ya got. Instant access to information could mean the difference between getting out alive or burning to a cinder.
The election is more than a month away. I'll have plenty of time to ponder what the candidates, the bloggers and my neighbor's 10-year-old kid have to say. I'd rather get a few well-reasoned analyses tomorrow morning than a thousand bon mots in real time.
While we're at it, the incessant yammering is one reason I watch less sports on TV these days. Too much sound and fury signifying nothing.
Posted by: Robert | October 02, 2008 at 09:14 AM
Robert, I think the idea that you're watching the debate for some insight in to the ideas or the policies of the candidates is strangely quaint. Wouldn't you agree that all concerned have long ago determined that the plan is to say as little as possible about actual policies, ideas, or plans... and instead to perform the role of President. In that act, the instant reactions of viewers is a real time data stream about not what is being said, but how it is being said and how it is being heard.
I agree, it's a bad use of the nations attention... but it is what the debates have become (or maybe always were?).
In any case, laptop ready - I fully expect Saturday Night Live to be the final analysis of the Debate, all else is just a rough draft.
Posted by: Steve Rosenbaum | October 02, 2008 at 12:22 PM
I have thought about this in the weeks since Adobe dropped a new media player in my laptop that is linked to TV shows. It's obviously first-step stuff, but I see a real challenge here developing for the fat-and-happy local TV owners if I can computerize my my evening viewing via a Media Player, eliminating the stuff I am not interested in. Even in an era of 250-plus channel TV, there are too many occasions when there is nothing worth watching on TV some evenings. (Having grown up in an age of three networks and the Honeymooners in black and white, I am astonished having just written that sentence). Being able to select a nice calming PBS program to fill in the blank hours would fill a niche, or a movie. It is unbelievably empowering.
Posted by: edward | October 02, 2008 at 02:47 PM
Actually, I will be hosting a live blog during the debate, for my online community GOLO.com. I did the same thing for Obama/Biden and they wanted more.
It's been promoted on the site all day, and I coupled it with a preview blog askng: "What do you expect from tonight's debate?" It has more than 100 comments, so I'm sure the live blog will be pretty interesting. I will defintely multitask, but I think it's for a good cause. growing and engaging the community.
Posted by: Angela Connor | October 02, 2008 at 03:40 PM
Steve,
Watching how candidates weave and dodge still tells me something about them. Your reaction to their performances may or may not add insight, but I'm plenty content to wait a day to find out.
If I wanted commentary as entertainment, I'd skip the debate entirely and pop in a DVD of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."
That said, I'm all for people blogging and tweeting their hearts out if it makes them more engaged.
Posted by: Robert | October 02, 2008 at 04:08 PM