Project for Excellence in Journalism: TV network websites provided best Election Day coverage

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: In a Different Race, TV Web Sites Win
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: November 27, 2006

There were winners on Election Day other than the Democrats. In the race for best media coverage, the winners were television Web sites, according to a report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which followed 32 different outlets, including newspaper Web sites, television programs, blogs, magazine Web sites and aggregators like Google and Yahoo.

The Web sites of both network and cable television delivered results quickly, allowing users to dig as deeply as they wanted into exit poll information and interactive maps with reports on hundreds of races.

“Most news organizations are still finding their way in this new multimedia environment,” said the report, compiled by Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project, which is affiliated with the Pew Research Center.

The posting of once-privileged exit polls, which the networks pay for, and the linking with state boards of election for county-by-county results are changing the election-night equation between media organizations and consumers, the report said.

“The exit poll may be more important today, not less, since users are probing that information directly, functioning as their own editors going state by state, looking for demographic information, late deciders and more,” the report said....

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Among the better sites, the report said, was MSNBC.com, which was particularly easy to navigate with an array of searchable features including results, videos and discussion boards....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/business/media/27election.html