By : Lina Soo

Firstly, what defines live coverage of an election? By my definition, it is reporting on the election real-time, including photography, video, poll, debate and commentary.  On polling day itself, its paramount task is to report the election results live as the vote tally comes onstream, not through official news channels and government sources, but direct at source i.e. the polling centre where initial ballot counting takes place. Live coverage offers a media approach to the low-tech world of ballot count and keeps netizens up-to-date  during polling, counting, tallying and final results.

Secondly, what is interactive live coverage and how does it differ from news updates? Live coverage where it  is interactive,  provides  a platform and forum which delivers  and shares  news, opinion and commentary amongst the online community where bloggers, citizen journalists and readers can readily participate,  anywhere in the world.

This allows unique perspectives to be diffused through to every reader and engages in real-time audience reactions. Live coverage, interactive or otherwise, is to be distinguished from news updates, where communication is one-way reporting, even if the updates may be broadcast by intervals of seconds or minutes.  Live coverage, aiming to be first in the news, disseminates and trickles down to the wider Internet and mainstream media.

Thirdly, what is the real significance of live coverage? A most important driver is the key step towards democracy and transparency as preliminary results at  polling centre level are transmitted immediately and reverberates throughout online or offline. Readers and the public will know the preliminary results way ahead of announcement of official results by the government. This would make it more difficult to tamper with the results after the initial count has been verified by the counting agents of the respective political parties.

A good example is the Sibu by-election where the unofficial results by a majority of a hair’s breadth were made known online far ahead by several hours before official broadcast. A mass rally of opposition party supporters by the thousands stood vigilance outside the tally centre for hours to ensure that last-minute manipulations of ballot re-counting and tampering of postal votes could not snatch victory away from under their very nose.

How does social networking media merge seamlessly with live reporting? Without doubt, the pendulum has already swung in favour of social networking media such as Twitter and Facebook. The most technologically advanced sector of society, and young people overall, received more up-to-date and diversified information as eyewitnesses recount reports about what they do or see through Twitter.  These twits are instantaneously picked up by live coverage blogs and websites, and this way, everyone can access the news in real time.  This helps every stage of the election to appear as transparent as possible and provides additional sources of information for both online and mainstream media. For example, in Odessa during the Ukrainian election, twits were received of attempts to bribe soldiers during polling, as well as an unusual but happy twit on the birth of triplets at a polling station!

In conclusion, Malaysia is still nowhere near the level of sophistication as displayed in America during the U.S. 2008 presidential race when then-candidate Barack Obama was credited with running the most Internet-savvy campaign the world had ever seen. Live coverage of elections where candidates debate, communicate their ideas and messages, and hold open Q&A sessions to promote themselves and their positions to engage the electorate is still unknown in Asia.

Still, twits transmitted by opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim of Parti Keadilan Rakyat and  opposition leader Lim Kit Siang of Democratic Action Party as evidenced during the recent Sibu by-election to keep readers abreast foretells the future to levelling the playing field where mainstream media is denied to political parties in the opposition. With alternative social networking tools providing a new sound to the once-voiceless, Malaysia’s politicians will have to, very soon embrace the Internet as an indispensable tool of civil communication to become the norm, not the exception.

Lina Soo is a Malaysian blogger and citizen videojournalist based in Sarawak, and has covered live Malaysian by-elections online in Batang Ai, Penanti, Manek Urai and most recently in Sibu. She may be contacted at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .