Court Reporting 2.0

Many years ago, when I was anchoring in Boise, we were covering the federal murder trial of Randy Weaver, a white supremacist accused of killing a deputy marshal. Since cameras aren't allowed in federal court, we had to rely on our reporter to run as FAST as he could down two flights of stairs to our waiting live truck so we could be FIRST with the verdict.

Unfortunately, this reporter wasn't much of an athlete, so when I tossed to him live - he was huffing and puffing so hard that he couldn't utter a word. I had to fill time to keep him from passing out.

How things have changed. In a blog  post for the Society of Professional Journalists, Witchita Eagle reporter Ron Sylvester outlines how he and a multimedia team covered a recent murder trial in Kansas. Sylvester describes how he used a smart phone and fold-up Bluetooth keyboard to deliver live updates to a copy editor, who would then send them directly to a special Web page set up for coverage of the trial.

The only copy that wasn't run through an editor first was the verdict. Sylvester sent instant messages through Yahoo! to post on the Web.

The team also produced audio slide shows of emotional testimony and used flash drives to download the prosecutor's Power Points - which included crime scene photos.

No Nikes needed for this coverage!