On election night, NBC News will split its own ticket.
Yes, viewers can watch Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell sticking to NBC proper. But they may also seek a growing body of programming in digital spaces.
Although NBC News has been on TikTok since 2019, the unit is for the first time sending staff to provide real-time reporting to users of the venue, says Catherine Kim, senior vice president of global digital news. NBC News could take advantage of any of its journalists to deliver a quick hit, re-record a video that was shown elsewhere, or, Kim says, ramp up new efforts to tell users if misinformation has been circulating. The series, #NBCdebunks, aims to give TikTok fans facts in the face of false stories circulating on the app.
“It’s going to be a real priority,” says Kim, of TikTok’s increased efforts. “We’re going to have a team at 30 Rock sitting next to all the editorial teams working on election night and into the early morning for us.”
The digital effort also includes primary programming on NBC News Now, the live broadcasting service of NBC’s global news unit. On election night, viewers can watch early evening coverage led by anchors Haley Jackson and Tom Lamas, and simultaneous broadcasts of NBC News’ prime-time programming.
Midterm elections usually herald a surge in interest in network television news coverage, a long-awaited reversal of viewing trends after the presidential election. And with more viewers turning to live broadcasts and social media, TV news outlets can’t just bet on TV. NBC is underscoring the importance of its digital efforts this weekend by presenting a promo for coverage of the NBC News Now election during “Sunday Night Football,” the network’s most-watched program. Promotional messages were also shown during the broadcast of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, Late Night with Seth Meyers, “Saturday Night Live”. “The Voice”, “Law & Order”, “Chicago Med” and many more sports radio programs.
But this year’s efforts also include new scrutiny of ballot papers and voting, a testament to the election denial that has spread around the 2020 elections and the January 6 uprising in the US capital that sought to prevent its results from being certified.
ABC News plans to operate the Office of Polling Observation, which is run by Senior Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran, Senior Legal Analyst Dan Abrams, and Contributing Kate Shaw, and all election integrity observation events in partnership with the Brennan Center at New York University School of Law, a A non-partisan and independent organization. On Fox News, Shannon Bream will use a new, immersive touchscreen to report on a Fox News-owned voter early and election day poll conducted in all 50 states by the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News and the Associated Pins.
CBS News has already revealed the Bureau of Democracy, with three reporters on standby to draw attention to hiccups in voting procedures, and whether law enforcement see any threats to poll workers.
“It’s important now to have that kind of team,” says NBC News’ Kim.
These efforts underscore the growing need to provide vetted information in real time, where life is digital, and not just at peak times. “We need to make sure we are in all places to give people a reliable place for information,” says Janelle Rodriguez, NBC News Senior Vice President who oversees NBC News Now. “We have dozens of people spread out across the country, on the ground, at polling stations, in the Secretary of State’s offices so that people can access reports that have been vetted and information they can rely on.”
The big question for digital communication is whether it can be monetized. A lot of news networks’ live broadcasting efforts rely on ads or subscriptions. However, some of the experiments are so new that they are not yet supported by financial models.
[ad_2]
