HUNTINGTON Ƶ Students in Marshall UniversityƵs W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications are organizing a 24-hour broadcast for Election Day on Nov. 5 with other students from across the country.
The first hour of the broadcast will be anchored by two editors of The Parthenon student newspaper, Sarah Davis and Evan Green, and will move onto a list of other participating colleges and high schools from there.
Online, Marshall students will continue managing the broadcast feed, as well as written reports, photographs and other live digital content through , founded by W. Page Pitt Director Robert Quicke and Nick Hirshon, associate professor at William Patterson University in New Jersey.
ƵI originally came up with the idea for this ... earlier this year, when I thought about the election, and I just observed a general sort of lack of interest or a lack of excitement from students who felt maybe perhaps disenfranchised by, at that time, the two major political candidates running,Ƶ Quicke said.
ƵI did think to myself, ƵWhy are we not paying more attention to what the students of that generation have to say?Ƶ And thatƵs when I thought, ƵWhat would be really cool is if students cross country could put together election coverage and we could hear a whole different perspective on this.ƵƵ
Because this idea is unprecedented, Quicke said, it was important to include not just students in West Virginia but journalism schools coast to coast to hear what elections are like in their states.
He began reaching out, and as of last week, he said there were more than 80 universities and schools onboard for the project, and partnerships have been formed with organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Ƶsociation of Hispanic Journalists and other entities.
ƵItƵs been really interesting to talk to colleges and schools from across the entire country. My inbox has been flooded, and this is just a great opportunity,Ƶ Quicke said.
Davis said the experience is particularly exciting for her to be able to use the skills sheƵs learned in journalism toward this effort, as this would be the only presidential election sheƵll see in her college career.
ƵI feel like college students are historically very opinionated and very active within elections. I think thatƵs the main thing, is just appealing to that audience, which is not only Marshall but all the other schools that are helping, as well,Ƶ Davis said.
Green said, although the script was not finalized as of last week, in the first hour of the broadcast, he expects he and Davis will explain how the broadcast works, along with some basic election information, while setting it up for other anchors throughout the day.
Since not all students who are watching may have a wide knowledge of politics, Green said they have also invited political science and history professors who can discuss contemporary issues that may be important to students.
Ƶ content from the other schools participating is submitted to the website, they may be previewed during the broadcast so those watching are kept up to date. The broadcast will switch between anchors at the different schools and may come back to Marshall occasionally throughout the night.
ƵI think the best thing about this is that it is journalism and content produced entirely by the students,Ƶ Quike said. ƵSo even though a lot of us are faculty helping to make this happen, technically and logistically, we want to do this so we can sort of stand back and get out of the way and let the students do this.Ƶ
At The Parthenon, Davis is the managing editor and Green is the executive editor. Davis said theyƵre using the knowledge theyƵve gained at the paper of producing both written and digital content and news gathering to develop the site while also managing a team.
So far, they have scheduled about 10 students per shift and divided their work into four shifts to keep content up to date throughout the night and manage the broadcast for the other schools.
ƵItƵs a combination of a few things for me. One is just the connections IƵve made at Marshall. I mean, in the four years here, IƵve gotten to know what professors are good to talk to,Ƶ Green said of the journalism skills heƵs learned that would help him during the broadcast.
ƵWeƵre going to have to be viewing content in real time, sent in by people from completely different universities that we might not even know, and we have to scan through that text and determine in a split second, is this something weƵre willing to publish? And if you arenƵt experienced, thatƵs a really tough situation to be in.Ƶ
And while Green said heƵs Ƶtapped-inƵ to politics, he said he knows itƵs important to make that content accessible to a wider audience who may not be, which is Ƶsomething that I probably could not have done without the journalism school.Ƶ
Quicke said, alongside the organizations who have agreed to support the production, the students were also offered a training session with NBC Universal on how to cover the election.
ƵI want this to be a launching pad for our student journalists as well. This might change their lives, the trajectory of their career, and what they decide to do,Ƶ Quicke said. ƵFor others, maybe this will be all that they do, and thatƵs it ... But for some students, I think this could be really transformative.Ƶ
While the majority of the teamƵs content will be available on their website, Quicke said iHeart Radio is also creating a radio station on its mobile app called ƵStudios News LiveƵ made specially for ease of access to their broadcast.
Although Quicke said this will be the first time testing the 24-hour news collaboration between universities, he has discussed with students possibly hosting it again for other events throughout the year, like during Black History Month.
ƵOnce we got everyone together, the hard part is launching and doing this for the first time, bringing everyone together,Ƶ Quicke said. ƵAnd then now weƵve got these connections, and we figured out how to do this technically, we can do it again. And students could really do this series of town halls and events and this could be an ongoing thing, and we hope it is.Ƶ
