LAT: Technology Feeds a Diet of (campaign) News Bites

[DeepModem Mom]

THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Technology Feeds a Diet of News Bites
Nifty gadgets allow reporters to transmit information to the public more quickly -- but experts worry about its fast-food quality.

By Eric Slater, Times Staff Writer


Pressed relentlessly by their outlets for more news more quickly, campaign-trail reporters made a discovery this election season that was at once helpful and dispiriting.

Using laptops equipped with wireless modems or hand-held e-mail devices, they were sometimes able to — and therefore expected to — file dispatches from campaign charter planes several thousand feet in the air.

During the four years since the last presidential campaign, media technologies that were mostly novelties have become commonplace.

Reporters from every television network and cable outlet now carry miniature broadcast-quality digital video cameras. In addition to at least one cellphone, many journalists carry a digital voice recorder, at least one hand-held e-mail device and a wireless modem.

The result, some say, has been a never-ending stream of news bites that at times has made the first draft of campaign history read more like a stenographer's transcript....


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-technocamp5apr05,1,2482605.story?coll=la-home-politics

[w4rma]

1. I've got no problem with transcripts.

Less spin in a transcript.