Hell Gate took on the New York City mayoral election with a livestream and watch parties

"On the screen, as with the two bars I'd tried before, was live footage of two journalists sitting at a table, laptops in front of them, talking about the election and occasionally cutting to their colleagues at each candidate's watch party across the city. But this wasn't a program from one of New York's broadcast mainstays like NBC or NY1; instead, it was a livestream on YouTube, and the journalists were worker-owners at the local news coop Hell Gate."

"A scrolling chyron at the bottom of the screen listed all the bars that were showing the livestream across the city, encouraging viewers not to watch the election results alone. An accompanying article (which is what helped me find my way to Threes that night) provided the full list of bars; most of them were in Zohran Mamdani mainstay neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens."

Bars across Brooklyn and Queens filled with patrons watching the New York City mayoral race on screens, creating an atmosphere likened to major sporting finals. A worker-owned local news coop, Hell Gate, produced a YouTube livestream with anchors Katie Way and Max Rivlin-Nadler and reporters cutting to candidate watch parties across the city. Hell Gate adapted its irreverent yet deeply knowledgeable voice for video, using a kitschy set and a scrolling chyron that listed bars showing the feed and encouraged communal viewing. A full list of participating bars concentrated in Zohran Mamdani’s neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

Read at Nieman Lab