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Live Casting: Bringing Astronomy to the Masses in Real Time (pages 26-29)
Pamela L. Gay, Fraser Cain, et. al.

Summary

The way we receive information in today's digital society has radically changed. Audiences are no longer passive consumers of content, but expect to be able to access the latest news rapidly from a variety of portals and sources. The needs of this rapidly expanding tech-savvy community are being met by a community of bloggers, podcasters and vodcasters, who use a suite of textual, audio and video content to reach their audience, many of whom subscribe to and follow content they enjoy. These communicators are the new faces of public outreach and journalism, and they are most effective when closest to the action. This desire to bring online audiences into the conference room alongside the scientists and professionals had led to the development of liveblogging. The idea is simple; anyone sitting somewhere interesting only needs a connection to the internet to report their experiences in real time.