Back around Super Tuesday, we discussed in class the cool interactive touch-screen map that CNN has been using to display voting-district-by-voting-district results on the night of each primary.
With the touch of a finger, John King can show us not only what's happening in a state but what could happen. For instance, a typical state on the night of a Democratic primary has dark blue (Obama) clusters around urban areas, while the rural parts of the state are colored light blue (Clinton). But in an instant, King can zoom in and show us the undecided areas, where the votes haven't been counted or the polls haven't closed yet. Then, with a touch of the finger, he can hypothetically call that area for one of the candidates -- and then we see whether that puts them over the edge in the state or not. It's even faster than real-time, it's pre-predictions.
So, it's no surprise that old media like the New York Times want to get in on this action. As I mentioned in a previous post, nytimes.com features an interactive election map as well. But without the touch screen, it's not nearly as cool. So instead, the Times did a feature-y, personal profile on John King. As a huge CNN fan, I did enjoy finding out that he is engaged to reporter Dana Bash. Besides that detail, the article didn't hold a candle to the experience of watching him on election night. I'm looking forward to seeing a) if other networks will invest in the technology, which was made by a company called Perceptive Pixel, and b) what happens to John King's career.
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