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Norkon case study -EU Parliament-1

The European Parliament
& Live Center

Live Center powers real-time coverage of 2019 European elections.

Introduction

The 2019 European elections were one of the most highly anticipated public sector events. With 28 member states and a population exceeding 500 million citizens, the demand for live coverage of the election’s outcomes was substantial.

 

The project:
Reaching 500 million citizens with live election coverage in their own languages

Building on Live Center’s success in helping media companies deliver live election coverage, the Directorate for Campaigns of the European Parliament selected Live Center to cover the 2019 European Union election. 

As a part of the project, 24 unique live blogs were created, covered by 30+ editors, each customized for official languages of EU countries. Certain accessibility requirements needed to be met, which is where Live Center’s flexibility and customizability shine.

Background

The European Parliament is the EU's only directly elected institution. Its 705 members represent the citizens of the European Union

The Directorate for Campaigns is an arm of the EU’s Directorate-General for Communication 

Selected Live Center's live-blogging solution to cover the 2019 elections 

EU-Parliament elections

Making public information more accessible

Because the live blogs were run on an official EU website, accessibility for readers with disabilities was a key consideration. Required attributes include being easily navigable and easy to understand for all readers. To support this requirement, Live Center was updated according to W3C standards and guidelines for screen readers and other accessibility-supporting devices up to an AA standard under the W3C WAI guidelines. These updates became available in Live Center’s live blogs for all our customers thanks to the EU’s election-blogging initiative.

Making elections more engaging: Visual and interactive

The Directorate’s coverage started by sharing a variety of key background information about:

  • Details about the election itself
  • Specific voting schedules for different countries
  • The importance of citizens' active participation in the voting process
The impetus for going beyond static blogging and choosing to use live blogging was to create more opportunities for engagement. Live blogging enabled the Directorate to create content that included but expanded on simple text. With live blogging, they could add videos from different video platforms and social media posts, such as Tweets, Instagram content, Facebook posts, etc., to create a more visual and engaging live feed that reflects the “live” and real-time nature of live blogging.
EU-Parliament elections-tablet

Ready to try out Live Center for yourself?

 

 

2x - 4x

More page views
than regular articles

80%

More ad impressions per page
view than regular articles

60%

Our clients cover live events
60% more after using Live Center