美國:網絡和手機成中期選舉報道先鋒
News organizations have unleashed a multimedia blizzard of widgets, apps, dashboards, Twitter tie-ins and iPad doohickeys for Tuesday's elections.
More than ever, the online and mobile offerings aren't merely supplementary to Tuesday night's TV viewing, but can function as primary sources for following the election results.
The 2008 presidential election, when Web traffic reached record levels, was something of a coming-out party for the Internet. The Web's encore came at the Inauguration, when streaming video had its most dramatic day up to that point.
The 2010 midterm elections, as experienced online, aren't likely to provide the same technological turning point. But two years later, the Web-savvy coverage of Tuesday's election highlights the growing sophistication of interactive media, social media and mobile apps.
ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, The New York Times and even PBS are all offering live webcasts Tuesday night. New media partnerships helped pave the way: ABC News with Facebook; CBS with Google; and NBC is embedding their video coverage on Twitter.
News organizations are putting a particular focus on getting election results straight to users on their mobile phones with apps that can give users specific results to their local elections.
Customization is often much of the draw of the multimedia offerings. CNN, for example, offers something called "My Election," which allows users to select up to 15 specific races they're following.
Meanwhile, social media destinations such as Facebook and Twitter used their power to get out the vote.
Atop Facebook pages was a reminder that Tuesday was Election Day. A link was provided to help people find their polling place, and a running ticker counted the number of people on Facebook who clicked that they had voted. The fast-rising number was more than 4.5 million as of early afternoon Tuesday.
Conversation on the election dominated Twitter, which was still relatively nascent during the 2008 election. The Times' website, which boasted extensive election coverage, attempted to diagram the dialogue on Twitter with an interactive feature showing which candidates were the most tweeted.
The Onion added comedy to the running commentary, posting Election Day tips, such as: "Young people should heed their civic duty and Rock The Vote. Older Americans are advised to smooth jazz the vote."
The most popular video online, according to Viral Video Chart, was "I Remember," an anti-Republican ad paid for by the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Campaign Assistance Fund. It was viewed more than 265,000 times.
新聞機構對本週二的選舉展開了鋪天蓋地的多媒體報道，widget工具、應用套件、dashboard應用程式、Tweeter捆綁，以及iPad裝置，無所不用其極。
不同於以往的是，通過網絡和手機發布的信息不再只是對週二晚間電視報道的補充，而是獲知選舉結果的主要來源。
2008年舉行總統大選時，網絡流量達到了史上最高峯，相當於互聯網的一次大聚會。在總統就職演說時，網絡的盛況再次上演，視頻流量在當天達到了史上最高點。
2010年的中期選舉似乎在網上沒能再現技術拐點。然而時隔兩年，在週二選舉的報道中對網絡的熟練運用突出反映了互動媒體、社交媒體和手機媒體日益走向成熟。
美國廣播公司、哥倫比亞廣播公司、美國全國廣播公司、紐約時報甚至連美國公共電視臺都提供週二晚間節目的網絡直播。新聞媒體間的合作爲此鋪平了道路：美國廣播公司和Facebook合作；哥倫比亞廣播公司和谷歌聯手；美國全國廣播公司則將視頻報道放置在Tweeter網上。
新聞機構特別注重將選舉結果通過手機直接傳達給用戶，手機上的套件可以讓用戶得知當地選舉的具體結果。
客戶化定製往往是多媒體報道更吸引人的地方。舉例來說，美國有線電視新聞網就推出名爲“我的選舉”的服務，讓用戶能夠選出15個特定的競選項以跟蹤查看。
同時，像Facebook和Tweeter這樣的社交媒體會運用它們的力量來動員投票。
在Facebook網頁最上方是一個提示：週二是選舉日。那裏提供了一個鏈接，幫助人們找到各自的投票處。Facebook上還有一個滾動的計數器，算出在該網站點擊“已投票”的人數。這一人數急劇增加，週二剛過中午就已經超過了450萬。
Tweeter上基本都是關於選舉的言論，而在2008年的大選中，Tweeter相對而言還只是一個新生事物。宣稱擁有最全面的選舉報道的紐約時報網站試圖根據Tweeter上的留言做一個互動圖表，顯示出哪些候選人被談論得最多。
Onion（洋蔥網）還給現場解說增加了一些喜劇效果，貼上了選舉日的小提示，比如“年輕人應該注意自己的公民義務，用搖滾的熱情投票。另外建議年長一些的美國人用平和爵士樂的風格進行投票。”
根據“瘋狂傳播視頻排行”，網上最受歡迎的視頻是“我記得”，這是國際鍋爐製造商同業工會競選資助基金會贊助的反共和黨廣告。該廣告的瀏覽量已經超過26.5萬次。
Vocabulary:
blizzard: a large quantity of things that may seem to be attacking you（大批侵擾性的事物）
widget: 微件，是一小塊可以在任意一個基於HTML的Web頁面上執行的代碼，它的表現形式可能是視頻、地圖、新聞、小遊戲等等。
dashboard: 蘋果公司一個操作系統中的應用程式。谷歌Dashboard能集中顯示谷歌收集的用戶所有信息，其中包括電子郵件摘要、搜索請求和在YouTube上觀看的視頻。
tie-in: a product such as a book or toy that is connected with a new film/movie, television programme, etc. （與新上演的電影或電視節目等）相關的產品，有關的書籍，有聯繫的玩具
doohickey: a small object whose name you have forgotten or do not know, especially part of a machine 玩意兒（指忘掉名稱或叫不出名目的小裝置等）
coming-out party: 年輕女性初入社交界而舉行的晚會
webcast: a live broadcast that is sent out on the Internet（網絡直播）
get out the vote: 動員投票
nascent: beginning to exist; not yet fully developed（新生的；萌芽的；未成熟的）
diagram: represent (something) in graphic form（用圖表顯示）
