Hofstra Students Using Latest Technology to Cover Tonight's Debate

So far this debate season, I think that one of the more interesting things happening on the campus of each host school is the coverage of the debate from the students themselves, given the tools they now have at their disposal. With both candidates, their campaigns, and a crazy amount of attention coming to their campus, some Hofstra journalism students are preparing to cover it all using some of these tools. I thought I'd highlight it as it provides a great example of how Millennials are using the technology available to them to contribute to a greater dialogue on public affairs.

On Wednesday night, a team of 20-30 students from Hofstra's online journalism class will be staffing a virtual "newsroom" that will be posting on-campus coverage of the debate via online social networking websites and other utilities. Each student in the class has been assigned an outlet to work with before and during the debate. The outlets used in the virtual newsroom include Facebook, Twitter, Mogulus, and CoverItLive.com. According to one of the online journalism students, Katie Nolan, the students will be stationed across campus, prepared to get instant reaction to the events of the debate. While the students will be using CoverItLive.com as their live blog platform, they'll supplement this coverage with both live and pre-recorded content to be shown on Mogulus, a social networking website with free video production capabilities. Facebook and Twitter will be used primarily to help with outreach.

As viewers/readers tune in, they'll be treated to an array of information turned up in research by these journalism students, currently stored in wikis. Each possible topic in tonight's debate has been given its own page, filled with quotes, relevant information, and the candidates' voting records and stances on the respective issue. Because the students will be able to link to these pages, their audience will be able to get more real-time information to assess each candidate's honesty, authenticity, and overall performance.

We talk a lot on this blog about Millennials and their collaborative nature leading to a better politics. But I think one thing I miss when I write about that possibility is what can happen with a Millennial-led media. This is an example.

Nolan, assigned to publicity for the Hofstra class's coverage, explained what this effort means to the class:

Basically, we and our professor believe that the internet has given us so much power and possibility when it comes to getting our message out to the public. We are taking on this task not only to learn about these aforementioned resources, but also to show people that when you put your collaborative minds to a project like this, you can really create something user-friendly and vastly informative.

While Rick Sanchez on CNN may have discovered Twitter and text messaging as ways to reach out to his audience, the reality is that there's very little innovative technological outreach out there while covering important political events. These Hofstra students and others across the country are demonstrating what the future of political news media might look like. With the focus on collaboration, and also on using the latest technology to deliver the information necessary to make an informed decision, these students are leading the way. Honor them by checking out their coverage:

• Twitter Coverage
• Mogulus TV Coverage
• Website and Blog

Debate coverage will begin with a video streamcast starting at 8:00 PM ET on the website/blog.