Live Coverage: AIDS Walk. My Story.

A gay marriage proponent showed his support with a NO H8 outfit at yesterday's AIDS Walk.

I had a lot of fun live-reporting the AIDS Walk yesterday. You’ll hate me for saying this, but I think it’s mostly because I used my iPhone for everything. I know, Apple could pay me.

 

But having all my tools in one handy device was an incredible advantage to have. With simple clicks of a button, I had access to Qik Plus, Twitter, and to Cover It Live. No need for separate cameras, laptops, or internet connections.

Because all the equipment was taken care of, I spent valuable time getting all the material I needed for the live report. I’m glad that I got in touch with people before the event to explain to them what I was doing that day and why. They were all very, very helpful, and gave me great access to my most important interview that day: Dr. Marjorie Hill, CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis. From there, it was easy to approach people doing the AIDS Walk to speak with them about their views on gay marriage. I’m comfortable with approaching strangers as it is, and especially when the group atmosphere is so positive (pardon the pun), everybody was willing to speak.

The only drawback was LONG upload times on Qik, which I honestly didn’t expect. My five-minute interview with Cathy Marino took a full half hour to upload to the system. Because I didn’t want to disturb the upload process, I didn’t tweet at all, so Dara was left with low filler material. But we got the situation taken care of drama-free.

What I also learned, as I mentioned in class, is to treat each individual live tweet as its own story. Provide context and give hashtags. Not all of my tweets had them, and if people were tuning in mid-AIDS Walk coverage, they would not have understood my material. So, yeah. Lesson learned. *The more you know*

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