How to Watch the Presidential Inauguration Online

The Presidential Inaugural Committee is the official place to find the latest and greatest streaming video and media for the Presidential Inauguration

Viewers can watch the actual swearing-in ceremonies live here; you can also view interactive maps of the Inaugural ceremonies, and watch the entertainers that will be participating in the Presidential Inauguration.

Every major news site will be offering dedicated coverage of the Presidential Inauguration, including:

• ABC.com: ABC has a live stream on YouTube that covers the presidential inaugurations online. 
• CBS.com
• MSNBC.com
• Fox.com
• CNN.com
• NYTimes.com
• WashingtonPost.com
• NPR.org

The news station CNN usually schedules a special Presidential Inauguration feature; users are able to watch the inauguration online in tandem with other CNN users who are also their Facebook friends. Be sure to check out the CNN live feed.

C-SPAN puts together a Presidential Inauguration Hub, with live video feeds from key events throughout the Presidential Inauguration in their online Control Room. Note: to make sure to get the best coverage of the presidential inauguration or any other live, historical event, be sure to check the C-SPAN schedule to understand when and what kind of coverage to expect.

For example, there are different C-SPAN channels that cover different proceedings. C-SPAN covers live events on the floor of the U.S. House of representatives. C-SPAN2 covers live floor proceedings in the U.S. Senate. C-SPAN3 covers events that are considered public affairs, congressional hearings, and other related history programming. When the House and Senate are not in session or there are historical events that take precedence (such as the presidential inauguration), C-SPAN carries live coverage. 

Twitter is a literal fire hose of information, and can be a bit of an overload. However, if you're looking for live information on one of the most closely followed events worldwide, this is a great place to accomplish that.

Hashtags (keywords that help categorize information into more easily navigable topics) you'll want to follow:#inauguration, #president, and of course, the name of the candidate who has been chosen to take the oath of office.

In addition, you'll want to take a look at a few users that do a great job of covering inaugural events: the official White House Twitter account at https://twitter.com/whitehouse, the Marine Corp band at https://twitter.com/marineband, and the Secret Service at https://twitter.com/secretservice.

Watch Twitter carefully, especially making use of trending hashtags, to get a head start on any breaking news or interesting events that may happen during the course of the inauguration. Twitter users are usually among the first to make these known, and it's a great way to get live, breaking news from firsthand witnesses.

Last but not least, Twitter users compile lists, and these lists are exceedingly handy to follow since you don't have to go through and find all these different users yourself. For example, this list of breaking news  Twitter handles has almost every global source of news you can think of, from Al Jazeera to the BBC.