The magic of immediacy…

Live television coverage had enabled us  to share the excitement of watching Malaysia’ “Harimau Malaya”-FC Barcelona soccer match in Shah Alam Stadium and Lee Chong Wei’s hard-fought battle against Lin Dan in the World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou.

We also had the chance to watch Robin van Persie scored twice as Manchester United beat Wigan Athletic 2-0 at Wembley to win the Community Shield, raising the curtain for the new season of the English football league.

From the comfort of our home or mamak restaurants and stalls,  we were thrilled for the “feelings of being there” with the thousands of spectators at the stadiums all over.

This is what immediacy is all about.

We shout as they shout and observe intensely every minute of the game, sometimes with a better view from those at the stadium themselves.

The other consolation for us was being able to go to the kitchen and refilled our coffee or if you were at the mamak restaurant, order more ‘teh tarik’.

 But while live coverage brings immense benefit to viewers,  it poses serious professional challenge for us in the media, more so for a news agency like Bernama.

We have to ensure our match reports reach subscribers fast.

This is where ‘flash’ and ‘tweets’ are important.

In fact, it is a practice of  many international news agencies to send out ‘flash’ and ‘tweets’ as the event unfolds.

Even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tweeted after Chong Wei lost.

 “A tweet as soon as something happens shows that Bernama is on the ball, that we have the story,” says editorial consultant S.Sivaselvam.

Some major news agencies and organisations even carry running reports on their website as they step up the challenge to be the first with the news.

Sports reporters covering football in the days of teleprinter would normally file in the  action of the first 45 minutes of play during half-time and indicated that the lead would follow.

This makes it faster  for them to file the story immediately after the game ended.

Live coverage is not confined to sporting events as exemplified by  a WhatsApp message from Sivaselvam before Chong Wei-Lin Dan's championship match yesterday.

“Just started…national press club debate between Australian pm and opposition  leader. Parliamentary reporters make up the panel,” he said of the debate shown live on Astro 521.

“Perhaps Bernama or Mokh’s NPC can organise something similar for happenings in Malaysia,” he opined.

He said we could promote healthy debates on issues that were important to the people such as non-political and social issues.