This is the first time in my entire life that I have regretted using sports as an excuse. Instead of watching The State of The Union, an annual tradition I enjoy, I was covering the Marquette Men's Basketball team's 67-47 win over The University of South Florida for MUTV Sports. There is nothing like watching a speech in real time and I missed that feeling this year. Seeing the facial expressions and hearing the inflections of the speaker's voice in real time cannot be replicated, but the NPR coverage was a close substitute.
Before The State of The Union, there was multiple articles that previewed what the president would discuss, including one highlighting First Lady Michelle Obama's guests and another with Senior Adviser David Plouffe, where Plouffe said the economy would be the main focus of the address. While these articles were informative, NPR was unique and provided a listening guide for viewers. This written piece was preceded by a radio discussion with other listeners on NPR the day before and then another on the morning of the speech.
Before The State of The Union, there was multiple articles that previewed what the president would discuss, including one highlighting First Lady Michelle Obama's guests and another with Senior Adviser David Plouffe, where Plouffe said the economy would be the main focus of the address. While these articles were informative, NPR was unique and provided a listening guide for viewers. This written piece was preceded by a radio discussion with other listeners on NPR the day before and then another on the morning of the speech.
During the speech, NPR kept a live blog, where viewers could respond to Obama's comments in real time. These blog posts were rather short, but focused on what the president was saying and utilized hyperlinks to direct viewers to other articles and websites with more information, including Politico.
NPR's coverage throughout the speech was active and engaged their readers, but their coverage after the event was remarkable. They fact checked Obama's speech, even adding a radio story about it, which was incredibly unique. By far the most impressive and engaging article that NPR published was their markup piece, which featured key reactions and added links to other pieces of multimedia. In their own way, NPR created their own Storify, except there were fewer Tweets and more of a multimedia focus.
NPR's coverage throughout the speech was active and engaged their readers, but their coverage after the event was remarkable. They fact checked Obama's speech, even adding a radio story about it, which was incredibly unique. By far the most impressive and engaging article that NPR published was their markup piece, which featured key reactions and added links to other pieces of multimedia. In their own way, NPR created their own Storify, except there were fewer Tweets and more of a multimedia focus.
NPR utilized all of their resources to provide comprehensive coverage that spanned multiple media platforms and appealed to a wide audience, even those who needed a laugh.