AFP interactive Flash graphic: Tour de France
Every year since 2001, Agence France-Presse has syndicated an awesome Flash package to paying clients such as The New York Times. Like every cycling fan, I’m pretty disillusioned by all the doping controversies surrounding the great race. But doping aside, for me, there’s no TV sports experience that even comes close to watching those men ride in the mountains.
The maps and stats in the AFP package take my breath away, but my favorite part is the live commentary — produced by AFP sports journalists typing away in several different languages, in real time, as they follow the race on TV and radio. The commentary is great for cycling fans stuck in their offices while the riders are on the road, and it’s even fun to follow it while watching the race on TV (which is something I do with my laptop open).
I interviewed numerous journalists at AFP in the summer of 2004 to write a case study about the Tour de France graphic for my book Flash Journalism. As a result, AFP gave me an archive copy of the 2004 graphic, which you can compare with the new one.
In my opinion, this is one of the great online journalism projects of all time because of the thoroughness, graphic quality and live reporting.
thanks for your visit!!! This is a great source of information for me and my students…we’ll keep in contact
July 9, 2007 at 2:40 pmI was really bummed when I didn’t have the “versus” cable network this year to be able to watch the race on TV. I think they have a great group of commentators, and I would have loved to have seen McEwen come back from a crash to win the first stage.
Given all that, I thought the online coverage was decent enough, with frequent “blog-like” updates and flash graphics.
July 9, 2007 at 2:48 pmAFP has plenty of competition in this area. The official site is best for showing current race status, with the gaps between the leaders and the peloton. VeloNews, Cyclingnews and Eurosport all also have some sort of live commentary.
AFP stands out with attractive stuff.
July 9, 2007 at 10:31 pmI was discussing this yesterday with a friend: I think the past versions of the AFP graphic were better. This year’s looks more slick, but the previous versions were more usable. Also, the maps were bigger and clearer in previous years. This year’s map is tiny and gray.
I still think AFP’s commentary beats everyone else’s. Too bad The New York Times has it on a long delay — that’s not AFP’s fault; the client gets to program the update interval.
July 11, 2007 at 9:53 amWell as one of the TDF commentators for AFP we are very pleased with the reaction to our TDF site and very much appreciate your review Mindy and the subsequent comments both positive and negative. Any further feedback is greatly appreciated and we hope that you enjoy the rest of the Tour. Thanks again for your visit Mindy when you were in Paris and for following our work….Au revoir!
July 11, 2007 at 12:06 pm