The night when caffeine is king
GENERAL ELECTIONS must once have been such dull affairs.
GENERAL ELECTIONS must once have been such dull affairs.
Not now, not in the age of information, where everything is available instantly and from multiple sources.
It was first most notable for us election junkies when Barack Obama took the US presidency in 2008.
Where four years earlier you were a passive viewer or listener, suddenly you had the world available to you.
Sitting on the sofa as the hours drew on with a laptop on hand to check live analysis online, with a choice of America's Fox News or the UK's BBC TV offering, you could satisfy your hunger for any nugget of political information.
And then it was all there in glorious print and pictures the next day, edited and analysed.
Fast forward to the UK General Election, where previously the biggest innovation had been the swingometer, and the ball game had taken another step forward.
Of course, we were now used to multiple TV channels and regional radio channels being available, but what had really taken off was hearing the voice of the people.
Through Twitter, online blogs and Facebook, the whole world can have a conversation.
Film clips are no longer confined to a big box in your living room - you can stay connected anywhere there is a signal for your mobile device.
If fed up with the analysis being offered by one organisation, you can easily switch to another.
In Guernsey in 2008, we saw the first smattering of using online as a key platform of our coverage.
They were tentative steps.
But in 2012 the landscape is very different.
People have choice and any traditional media organisation wants to be at the forefront of people's minds.
That is not to downplay the role played by the traditional radio or TV broadcasts, or the in-depth and more analytical coverage available in the following day's Guernsey Press - which, by the way, post-election should hit the streets much earlier than usual.
We can cut through the fog of information to bring a concise and more considered picture.
Political analysts who have watched the States for years and followed the ebb and flow of decision-making have the time to follow the mood of public opinion. Whether expressed in person or online, it can bring a bigger picture to the conversation.
But it would be foolhardy to get too precious because, come late on Wednesday night when the first results start rolling in, there will be a conversation online, in living rooms and on the streets that we will be trying hard to capture.
It will be the first truly 'live' election in this newsroom, with rolling coverage through thisisguernsey.com using every source available to paint the picture of the night.
As a journalist, it makes it exciting.
As a political junkie, it will help satisfy an at times insatiable appetite.
But it will not stop for us when the last result is announced and the radio and TV gets switched off.
Because the team will be working on a bumper package for the Thursday newspaper.
The final words get written only as the sun begins to rise. It is a night when caffeine is king.
It is only when the totality of the results are known, when there has been a chance to reflect on the patterns, on the conversations, that you can finish the picture.
There is drama and emotion on an election night. All through the districts, there are stories to be told or dreams fulfilled or shattered.
It is better than any soap opera because it is real.
It is better than any soap opera because the decisions made by the electorate on that night will shape everyone's lives in Guernsey for the next four years.
