美国:网络和手机成中期选举报道先锋

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.

新闻机构对本周二的选举展开了铺天盖地的多媒体报道，widget工具、应用套件、dashboard应用程式、Tweeter捆绑，以及iPad装置，无所不用其极。

不同于以往的是，通过网络和手机发布的信息不再只是对周二晚间电视报道的补充，而是获知选举结果的主要来源。

2008年举行总统大选时，网络流量达到了史上最高峰，相当于互联网的一次大聚会。在总统就职演说时，网络的盛况再次上演，视频流量在当天达到了史上最高点。

2010年的中期选举似乎在网上没能再现技术拐点。然而时隔两年，在周二选举的报道中对网络的熟练运用突出反映了互动媒体、社交媒体和手机媒体日益走向成熟。

美国广播公司、哥伦比亚广播公司、美国全国广播公司、纽约时报甚至连美国公共电视台都提供周二晚间节目的网络直播。新闻媒体间的合作为此铺平了道路：美国广播公司和Facebook合作；哥伦比亚广播公司和谷歌联手；美国全国广播公司则将视频报道放置在Tweeter网上。

新闻机构特别注重将选举结果通过手机直接传达给用户，手机上的套件可以让用户得知当地选举的具体结果。

客户化定制往往是多媒体报道更吸引人的地方。举例来说，美国有线电视新闻网就推出名为“我的选举”的服务，让用户能够选出15个特定的竞选项以跟踪查看。

同时，像Facebook和Tweeter这样的社交媒体会运用它们的力量来动员投票。

在Facebook网页最上方是一个提示：周二是选举日。那里提供了一个链接，帮助人们找到各自的投票处。Facebook上还有一个滚动的计数器，算出在该网站点击“已投票”的人数。这一人数急剧增加，周二刚过中午就已经超过了450万。

Tweeter上基本都是关于选举的言论，而在2008年的大选中，Tweeter相对而言还只是一个新生事物。宣称拥有最全面的选举报道的纽约时报网站试图根据Tweeter上的留言做一个互动图表，显示出哪些候选人被谈论得最多。

Onion（洋葱网）还给现场解说增加了一些喜剧效果，贴上了选举日的小提示，比如“年轻人应该注意自己的公民义务，用摇滚的热情投票。另外建议年长一些的美国人用平和爵士乐的风格进行投票。”

根据“疯狂传播视频排行”，网上最受欢迎的视频是“我记得”，这是国际锅炉制造商同业工会竞选资助基金会赞助的反共和党广告。该广告的浏览量已经超过26.5万次。

Vocabulary:

blizzard: a large quantity of things that may seem to be attacking you（大批侵扰性的事物）

widget: 微件，是一小块可以在任意一个基于HTML的Web页面上执行的代码，它的表现形式可能是视频、地图、新闻、小游戏等等。

dashboard: 苹果公司一个操作系统中的应用程式。谷歌Dashboard能集中显示谷歌收集的用户所有信息，其中包括电子邮件摘要、搜索请求和在YouTube上观看的视频。

tie-in: a product such as a book or toy that is connected with a new film/movie, television programme, etc. （与新上演的电影或电视节目等）相关的产品，有关的书籍，有联系的玩具

doohickey: a small object whose name you have forgotten or do not know, especially part of a machine 玩意儿（指忘掉名称或叫不出名目的小装置等）

coming-out party: 年轻女性初入社交界而举行的晚会

webcast: a live broadcast that is sent out on the Internet（网络直播）

get out the vote: 动员投票

nascent: beginning to exist; not yet fully developed（新生的；萌芽的；未成熟的）

diagram: represent (something) in graphic form（用图表显示）