Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

For a television networks' News division, a presidential election year provides both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity is to capture the enthusiasm of our audience with a unique, year-long story. The challenges are to inform that audience clearly and accurately about a story which unfolds in many places at differing times. — The election narrative begins with coverage of the primaries, and is capped off by a full night of broadcast on election eve. For all of these productions, the results themselves play a crucial role in defining the story. How to get this “raw data” displayed to the audience accurately, quickly and in an entertaining manner presents a tremendous challenge for the people and technology of the News division. — As network budgets get smaller, the challenge gets even greater. This paper will outline techniques used at NBC News to meet these objectives, and will illustrate the automation and production techniques used to create graphics and animations during the “Decision 92” election coverage.

Published

1993-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00684

ISBN

978-1-61482-920-1