COMM 337: Here's an example of a live blog

A "live blog" is a media weblog that updates as soon as new developments come in during a breaking story. Today's Guardian.co.uk website, a project of The Guardian newspaper in the U.K., has one on today's developments in the sovereign debt crisis gripping Europe's financial markets.

It's a complex story, and a very important story - even if it doesn't get much play in American media other than The Wall Street Journal. And we could profitably ask ourselves why our media don't bother with international news until it comes home to bite us.

But instead, let's take a minute and look at how the Guardian is able to use the blog format keep up with events as they happen, wherever they happen ... in Greece, in Germany, Japan, Washington, D.C., and even in the Guardian's competitors' studios in London as the British Broadcasting Corp. tries to confirm the identity of a stock trader who predicted catastrophe and suggested the markets don't care about the health of Europe's economy.

Later [1:06 p.m. CDT]. While I was out to lunch, the Guardian closed out the blog for the day ... and reversed the order, so the earliest items are now on top and the newer ones below. In other words, it's now in chronological order rather than blog-style with the most recent items on top. It's easier to read that way.