Real-time news means capturing and sharing events as they unfold. It’s a crucial element of news reporting that’s being shaped by innovative technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. But more importantly, it’s being driven by the need for greater immediacy.
Social media is a key player in the rise of real-time news. Equipped with smartphones, ordinary citizens have the power to become on-the-spot reporters, capturing and broadcasting significant events that wouldn’t be possible for traditional news crews. This democratization of news reporting is both exciting and challenging for journalists. It can provide audiences with a diverse array of perspectives and angles, but it also poses new challenges in terms of verifying content and maintaining ethical standards.
This year’s Digital News Report confirms a crisis of trust in news, yet it also highlights a glimmer of hope. Audiences want credible information delivered in a format that respects their time, attention, and intelligence. The answer may lie in formats like live blogs, which combine speed and transparency in one cohesive stream.
Suddeutsche Zeitung, for example, saw seven out of their top ten most read articles in 2023 come from their live blogs. They use the format not just to update, but to explain, embedding transparency cues and structured fact-checks into their real-time coverage. Their readers reward this approach with over 8x longer retention rates than standard articles. For publishers, this means that a well-implemented live blog can not only help restore trust but drive reader loyalty through habitual check-ins and notifications.