Tonight liveblog: new format and features

TV3's Tonight entered its third season this week and Politico is continuing with the associated liveblog, albeit in a new format. This year liveblogs will be run using Cover It Live. It more intuitive than ScribbleLive and allows embedded video and images.

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This week we started posting the frontpages of some newspapers in the blog. This allows bloggers to catch a glimpse of tomorrow's papers before the newspaper segment is run on the programme. Currently (9 Sept 2010), we're awaiting permission from the Irish Times and Irish Independent. 

We'll also continue to post the guests and topic in advance of the programme, as soon as we get the information coming from TV3. 

For readers unfamiliar with live blogging, it is a means to debate the topics under discussion in an online community. Messages posted on Twitter with the hashtag #vinb are streamed into the live blog automatically. Ditto tweets sent to and from @politico_ie. And if you don't use Twitter, comments may be written directly into the liveblog window. Cover It gives the ability to embed live video streams; we're awaiting awaiting TV3's permission to livestream Tonight.

The number of tweets on the #vinb hastag has soared in the past year - reflecting the growing Irish Twitterati. Tweets come fast and thick, and thicker. Often the rants on Tonight  are surpassed in vitriol only by #vinb tweets. ("Would that the guests (and presenter!) were kept to 140 characters", I hear someone say.) The liveblog relies on a good mix of humour and insight. All we can do at Politico is try to filter out the cheap shots and keep the good stuff.

But be patient, it's sometimes  a challenge.