Meerkat and Periscope: will live-streaming apps transform news?
Both Meerkat and Twitter’s Periscope, which was launched Thursday, are very easy to use, prompting excitement about the possibility for both journalists and users to report live from the scene of major events.
As the apps have grown, news organisations across the world have begun experimenting with how to use them.
Last week, the Economist was one of the first news organisations in the UK to trial Meerkat, using it to explain UK deflation. Economics correspondent Henry Curr answered questions, sent in by readers on Twitter, on a live stream, as inflation fell to zero per cent for the first time in recent memory.
Economist deputy editor Tom Standage explained that while the use of Meerkat was an experiment, live streaming was something of which the 177-year-old publication should do more.
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