Vibe coding successes: From live blog to live ticker for trial coverage

Over the years, unfortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to innovate coverage around several high-interest trials. It is a supreme irony that these unimaginable moments in the lives of others can inspire work that changes the playing field for journalism.

For me, these trials are one example of the pressure cooker of deadlines, details and drama that inspire innovation.

Over the past two years, a series of high-profile trials led me to develop workflows that allow reporters in a courtroom to transmit notes in real-time to an audience-facing display and a newsroom database. Live blogging services have offered similar audience-facing tools for years, but my approach merges that product with data collection that I first saw in live sports production.

The first version was, I admit, rather ugly. I created it before vibe coding was even on my radar. The key was that it worked reliably and at no added cost or investment because it utilized existing tools, albeit in an unintended way.

Once the utility was proven, my colleagues began applying the tool to other kinds of events. I saw it applied to severe weather and Friday night football.

We proved an appetite for instant updates and soon the company assigned a developer to help take it to the next level. It became a proper bespoke tool with customization options, new features and a much nicer interface that we have since applied to more trials, a Super Bowl and a marathon.

Which brings us to now, and the latest innovation. With a little AI vibe coding help, I was able to realize my vision of running the notes as a ticker at the bottom of a live stream — finally uniting the reporter’s context with the unfiltered sights and sounds of the courtroom.

I believe this new layer of context will separate our stream from the generic pool feed available to all of our competitors.