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What election coverage will get your vote?

By Eric Deggans, Times TV/media critic
In print: Tuesday, November 4, 2008

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As you might expect for the most-televised, most-streamed, most-blogged, most-Twittered presidential campaign in history, there is an explosion of media outlets where you can get information on how today's election will conclude.

In the end, determining where folks will likely grab news depends mostly on who they are. So here are a few suggestions on where to find timely election updates, depending on how you like your news.

Old school network TV addict: If it's not news until Brian, Charlie or Katie say it is, look here.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all plan continuous election coverage after their evening newscasts end at 7 p.m. (local affiliates plan brief updates on area races and late-night newscasts). ABC brings Charlie Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos; NBC offers Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Chuck Todd and Ann Curry; CBS presents Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer and Jeff Greenfield; and Fox borrows Shepard Smith from Fox News Channel.

Cable news gluttons: When too much just isn't enough.

CNN's coverage starts at 6 p.m., ostensibly led by Wolf Blitzer, Campbell Brown and Anderson Cooper. But fans will really focus on John King's towering "magic wall" touch screen and a new, 3-D, 6-foot-long virtual replica of the U.S. Capitol. MSNBC starts at 5 p.m. with David Gregory and all the channel's other anchor stars. Fox News Channel begins at 6 p.m. with Brit Hume covering his final election. Fox Business Network also starts at 6 p.m. with anchor Neil Cavuto, while CNBC kicks off at 7 p.m. And if flipping is too much trouble, DIRECTV's Election Mix channel offers displays from eight different channels at once.

Nerdy political wonk: These folks need data delivered old school.

PBS starts at 9 p.m. with just-the-facts anchor Jim Lehrer, a panel of historians and columnists. National Public Radio broadcasts for eight hours starting at 7 p.m. with Michele Norris and Robert Seigel and the work of 100 journalists around the country (WUSF-FM 89.7 will carry NPR from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.). C-SPAN's coverage starts at 7 p.m., featuring long, unfiltered broadcasts of acceptance and concession speeches across the country.

Internationalists: Wonder what this madness looks like from the outside looking in? Or in a different language?

The British Broadcasting Corp. starts at 6 p.m., featuring former ABC anchor Ted Koppel, comic Ricky Gervais and columnist Christopher Hitchens. Al Jazeera English offers 12 hours of reporting from 11 locations across the United States. Spanish language networks Univision and Telemundo both start continuous coverage at 7 p.m.

Jokesters and club kids: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert headline Comedy Central's live election special Indecision 2008: America's Choice at 10 p.m. Current TV offers a report co-sponsored by Digg and Twitter, with performances from a live DJ.

People of color and the folks who love them: Black-focused TV One starts its coverage at 7 p.m., featuring author Michael Eric Dyson, radio personality Tom Joyner and CNN pundit Roland Martin. Black Entertainment Television offers results coverage starting at 8 p.m.

Nerdy wonks with a BlackBerry: ABCNews.com presents four live streams of coverage. CBSNews.com is teamed with CNET.com for a 2 a.m. webcast. NPR.org teams with PBS.org for an interactive election map and webcasts. PBS and YouTube also feature videos on voting uploaded by the public (www.youtube.com/videoyour vote). Twitter's election updates come from a team of "twittering" contributors (election. twitter.com). MSNBC.com offers its own interactive map and a debate video player. And closer to home, tampabay.com will cover voting through its own Twitter feed, and will feature an interactive electoral map, plus up-to-the-minute coverage of local and state races.