As the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest approaches, the community media teams who have been following the Song Contest all year round are joined by the mainstream media as they bring the Contest to a much wider audience.

Yet these journalists have been working other beats and have other specialities throughout the year? How do they go about reporting on Eurovision with just a few days on the ground in Basel or at most two weeks in a tabloid newspaper’s entertainment section?

Martin Belam is a reporter for The Guardian and is one of their experienced live bloggers. He has covered fast-breaking news stories, ongoing events, and major sporting moments. Once a year, he also covers the Eurovision Song Contest. Ewan Spence sat down with him a week before the Contest.

They talk about…

• …how Martin started in journalism


• …the ever-changing nature of reporting in the first decade of the 21st century.


• …how liveblooging has become one of the new skills in a journalist’s tool.


• …how to prepare for liveblogging, including gathering information, stories, and quotes.


• …the audience expectation when interacting with a liveblog.


• …an obligatory reference to Ron from Sparks.

Eurovision Chat Over Coffee, with Guardian Liveblogger Martin Belham

In the latest Chat Over Coffee podcast, Ewan Spence sits down with Guardian Liveblogger Martin Belam to talk about the evolving nature of digital journalism, using liveblogs to cover major events, researching new topics, meeting audience expectations, and more…

Discover more about the Eurovision Song Contest and follow its journey to Basel by listening to the ESC Insight podcasts. You’ll find the show on iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. A direct RSS feed is available. We also have a regular email newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

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