These are slides for a Sept. 27 class on covering events.

1. Event coverage
Steve Buttry
Media Writing
Sept. 27, 2016

3. Electionland
• Available most of Election Day, Tuesday,
Nov. 8, training in October
• Email to me and lporter@lsu.edu
• Tell us of Election Day conflict(s)
• Tell us in tweet length why you should be
on our Electionland team
• Write extra-credit account of Electionland

4. Moment or Movement
• Next Monday-Tuesday, Oct. 3-4
• Story will be mid-term, not 3rd assignment
• Story due by 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5
• Say in email what your writing role is
(news, PR, poli-comm, native advertising)
• “3rd” writing assignment due by Nov. 17
• Can do advance (by Sunday, Oct. 2) for 3rd

5. What’s an event?
• Scheduled occurrence that you can plan to
cover
• Not breaking news (fires, crimes, weather,
disasters, accidents, etc.)
• Breaking news can happen at events (riot,
illness, coach fired)
• Usually public access (secret or private
events are covered differently)

6. • Prep
• Pay attention
• Notes & recording
• 360 view
• Watch for surprise
• Interview(s)
• Write
Follow-up
• Fact-check
• Answer questions
• Impact
• Reaction
Separate story or
part of event story
Event coverage

7. Some types of events
• Meeting
• Trial
• Press conference
• Sports event
• Concert
• Festival
• Debate
• Speaker(s)
• Conference
• Convention
• Symposium
• Awards
• Funeral/Wedding
• What else?

8. Different approaches
Journalism: News story, live coverage, fact-
checking, enterprise follow-up
Public relations: Press release promoting
event, press release/news story afterward
Political communication: Story for website,
fact-check opponent, document claims
Advertising: Promote event, clips for
political ads, native advertising news story

9. Preparing for event
• Check program or agenda online
• Research issue(s) to be covered
• Check spellings of names
• Check titles
• Can you find speakers’ bios?
• Dig beneath the surface

10. Live coverage
• Livetweet (using hashtag)
• Feed tweets into site (widget, ScribbleLive,
Live Blog, etc.)
• Liveblog
• Livestream (Periscope, FB Live, Livestream,
Ustream, etc.)

11. Visual coverage
• Photos (zoom with your feet, if possible)
• Crowd shots as well as speaker (sometimes
more important)
• Video (live and/or edited)
• Interactive tools

12. Multi-tasking
Some events have multiple events (Moment
or Movement, for instance, and
conferences). Make choices but check out
what’s happening elsewhere (social media,
other media coverage).
Interviews may be better than speeches,
panels.

13. Notes & recording
• Organize notes (label events within events,
identify speakers clearly, etc.)
• Take more notes than you’ll need
• Liveblog or tweets can become notes
• Consider audio or video recording

14. 360 view
• Speaker and/or scheduled action may
not be the story
• Are protesters or crowd action important
(Trump rallies)?
• Is someone in the crowd special in some
way?

15. Watch for surprise

16. Interviews
• Can you interview speaker, panelists
(before or after)?
• Get reaction from crowd
• Does interview with speaker or person in
crowd become more important than
what happened at the event?

17. Write
• Write while it’s fresh (between mini-
events if time permits)
• Is this one story or multiple stories?
• What’s your lead (answer: What’s the
story about?)
• Bullets can help summarize multiple
points

18. Types of events
Meeting: If it should be public, make them
cite reason to close. Get packet of
documents the board or council members
get.
Trial: Does judge or state allow computers
or phones in courtroom? Read case file.
Documents, exhibits can be helpful.
Press conference: Not a performance.

19. Types of events
Sporting event: Might be covering solo or
part of a team. Know your role. Which
team are you covering? Watch for surprise
developments (injuries, malfunctions, post-
game developments). Take notes. Story
isn’t play-by-play, but importance &
outcome. Think beyond “game story.”
Some sports (track & field, wrestling,
gymnastics) require multi-tasking.

20. Types of events
Concert or festival: Are you reviewing or
reporting? How much a part of the story is
the crowd? Festival requires choosing
among several events (and checking on
overall event).

21. Types of events
Debate: Journalists should be careful of
“spin” (everyone claims they won). Political
communicators need to get good at spin:
Why did you win. Fact-checking important
for journalists and political communicators
(document your own claims & debunk
opponent’s).

22. Types of events
Speaker: Can be solo or in other formats.
Convention: Votes and other action may
be most important, but also speeches.
Conference: Different if writing for general
audience, niche publication or PR. Informal
stuff may be as important as program.
Symposium: Collection of speakers and
panels. May not have to cover them all.

23. Types of events
Awards: Who’s your audience? What do
they care about?
Funeral: Situation & family’s wishes may
dictate how you cover.
Wedding: Rare news event where what
people wear is newsworthy (but few
weddings merit coverage beyond
announcement).

24. Follow up
Fact-check: Don’t just parrot the
speaker(s). Check facts and correct the
speaker’s errors (or note you’ve confirmed
the speaker was right.
Impact, reaction: If a board or council took
action, explain the impact, gather reaction.
Answer questions raised in the event.
Use events as enterprise story starters.

25. Social media
Curate: See what people have said about
the event. Might be quotes or embeds in
story or separate story.
PR or poli-comm: RT or share posts
praising your client/company/candidate.
Answer questions. Engage critics?