Election coverage lessons from the Brits
There's nothing like an election to get hacks happy and there's nothing like election coverage to showcase the full power of the web as a journalism tool. As the results of the fascinating election in the UK this morning unfold, so does a great case study of how media can use the web to cover such an event.
Back home in SA we have local government elections to look forward to next year and the British election coverage gives us some good ideas on how we might shape some of our online coverage.
It strikes me that in many respects the web coverage in the UK this time around has taken the space once occupied by TV as media exploit the visual and interactive strengths of online as well as the immediacy of the medium.
However, a serious criticism from my side is that there seemed to be little to no attempt by any of the mainstream players to play with some citizen reporting techniques or technologies. You would think an election in which pretty much all of your audience will have some sort of direct, intimate experience would be made for this. I would have liked to have seen users tweeting their experiences, sharing in their emotions and reactions as the results came in and sharing their own pictures and videos of election day. This could have made for a compelling dimension to all the coverage.
That said, the British media heavyweights have flexed their creative muscle with some wonderful examples of how powerful the web can be for an election. There has been an orgy of data visualisation and use of social media by professional reporters using Twitter to convey the unfolding drama.
There are some stand-out examples for me. 
The Telegraph has made excellent use of all web reporting techniques with interactive mapping of voting results, use of live twitter feeds and rolling blog commentaries. I particularly liked the "election scalps" picture galllery which showed key moments in which (mainly) Labour heavyweights saw their bums at the polling station.
The Telegraph also had a powerful web ace up its sleeve in the form of the database of MPs expenses which is has built on the back of its astounding pre-election expose over the last year and a half. They cleverly linked in MPs running in this election to that database which provided a take which no-one was able to offer.
It was interesting that most major sites did not make heavy use of video as part of their multimedia offering. For all of us working in the real world of news this is understandable as the production and turnaround times of video make it difficult to use effectively on a rolling story.
The Guardian's coverage is also well worth a look. The Guardian is the real market leader in the British press when it comes to data visualisation and computer-aided reporting online and it's election map showcases its expertise in this area.
I also liked the Daily Mail's web coverage even though it steered clear of the bells-and-whistles approach of many of the other big players. It's emphasis was more on solid presentation of breaking news content with a more "newspaper" style of presentation. It was a little text heavy for my liking, but I enjoyed this kind of presentation below.
Tabloid market-leader The Sun made good use of Twitter and also had some strong rolling coverage on its front page. 
I thought the use of Sky television's live election coverage embedded in their front page was smart. It's a clever way of projecting a comprehensive offering without online trying to duplicate the visual strength of its broadcasting sister.
Based on my trawl through the British sites this morning, these are the lessons I have learned for planning election coverage online.
1. Online works powerfully for breaking news in an election (as it does for breaking news more generally);
2. You must have data visualisations which explain the morass of election numbers which stream in. Make good use of dynamic, realtime mapping and charting to add understanding to the election state of play;
3. Use social media as a reporting tool - but also as a tool to engage your readers and for them to share and report on their own experiences of the election;
4. Clever use of picture galleries has a lot of impact. Go for a theme rather than a broad selection of images from the event;
5. Avoid video unless you have something very special;
6. Perhaps look at a broadcasting partnership to provide streaming video (and audio?) content to your site rather than try produce it yourself;
7. Recruit credible blogging commentators to add context to your results coverage and meaning for your readers
Please feel free to offer any other lessons you think are worth considering.
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