The reporters at the New Mexico Independent were happy to hear that the special session of the New Mexico Legislature was postponed for five days.
They’re still really tired.
Having spent hundreds of hours liveblogging the torturous 30-day legislative session, the staff of the online news source kept New Mexicans informed about how their officials were spending tax dollars. Gwyneth Doland, Independent editor, said the liveblog allowed people a chance to watch New Mexico government in action.
“Normal people don’t have the time to take off of work, go to Santa Fe and sit in on committee hearings and floor debates,” she said.
Reporters sit in on hearings of interest and constantly update the Independent Web site, for hours at a time. Legislators, viewers, Roundhouse staff and journalists are allowed to comment on the blog as it’s updated.
Doland said that at its peak, 500 people were watching the liveblog during the legislative session, and she said its presence in the hearings had an impact on the legislative process.
“We heard legislators say things like, ‘I believe this, and I don’t care if it’s going out over the whole Internet right now or not,’ or ‘I’ve got a whole lot of people who are watching this webcast, and they’re sending me their e-mails, and I’m still going to vote no on this,’” she said. “This is something you didn’t hear at all a year ago.”
The Legislature started webcasting its meetings in February of last year. However, the webcasts are not archived, per a senate policy. As a result, Doland said the liveblog is valuable both for real-time information and hindsight.
“If you just jump into the middle of any legislative day, you’ll have no idea what’s happened so far,” she said. “Liveblog lets you figure out what they did. It provides an archive, a transcript of the day’s proceedings.”
The Independent also liveblogged the 2009 regular and special sessions as well as various other events, Doland said.
Since the legislators were unable to pass a budget before the session ended, the governor called a special session and then postponed it. So, the Independent is gearing up do it again, but this time it wants UNM students to tune in, Doland said.
“We want UNM students watching, participating, asking questions, whatever,” she said.
UNM is facing a possible budget cut and tuition credit increase at the special session.
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2010 special session liveblog
NewMexicoIndependent.com *
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