Showing posts with label election coverage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election coverage. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Students Catching Political Fever
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
The heated political rhetoric and captivating ideas of the presidential candidates is generating a lot of buzz among students. Here are some of the impressive initiatives that involve young people reporting and blogging about the election process.
• Daily Kos: University of Washington professor David Domke is leading a group of UW students in reporting and blogging around the elections. They’ve reported in Washington state and Idaho and are now blanketing Texas. Their coverage has caught the attention of the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Huffington Post. See http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/04242/68517 for more.
• Collaborations: Two teen initiatives, What Kids Can Do (Providence, R.I) and Y-Press (Indianapolis), have teamed up on campaign coverage and plan to blog together for the next 10 months. See http://www.whatkidscando.org/youth_on_the_trail/y-press_intro.html for the first posts.
• New America Media: NAM's YO! Youth Outlook has been posting a youth media blog-a-thon for the past few weeks. It includes a call out to other youth bloggers to join in on the action. See their blog at http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=89b2ad995e5cce45a27514fdd7312838.
• The group Mikva Challenge sent a group of teenagers to New Hampshire to cover the primaries there. The reporting they did is posted here (http://mikvainnewhampshire08.blogspot.com).
Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, with Ethics and Excellence in Journalism funding, will be conducting research later this year to identify techniques and strategies news organizations can use online to deepen teen interest in serious news. MMC is looking for recommendations about web sites that should appeal to young people interested in following the ’08 election. Contact Vivian Vahlberg at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu. The upcoming research is a follow-up to MMC's "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," report, which was funded by McCormick Tribune Foundation.
• Daily Kos: University of Washington professor David Domke is leading a group of UW students in reporting and blogging around the elections. They’ve reported in Washington state and Idaho and are now blanketing Texas. Their coverage has caught the attention of the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Huffington Post. See http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/04242/68517 for more.
• Collaborations: Two teen initiatives, What Kids Can Do (Providence, R.I) and Y-Press (Indianapolis), have teamed up on campaign coverage and plan to blog together for the next 10 months. See http://www.whatkidscando.org/youth_on_the_trail/y-press_intro.html for the first posts.
• New America Media: NAM's YO! Youth Outlook has been posting a youth media blog-a-thon for the past few weeks. It includes a call out to other youth bloggers to join in on the action. See their blog at http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=89b2ad995e5cce45a27514fdd7312838.
• The group Mikva Challenge sent a group of teenagers to New Hampshire to cover the primaries there. The reporting they did is posted here (http://mikvainnewhampshire08.blogspot.com).
Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, with Ethics and Excellence in Journalism funding, will be conducting research later this year to identify techniques and strategies news organizations can use online to deepen teen interest in serious news. MMC is looking for recommendations about web sites that should appeal to young people interested in following the ’08 election. Contact Vivian Vahlberg at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu. The upcoming research is a follow-up to MMC's "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," report, which was funded by McCormick Tribune Foundation.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Pomp-ing Up The Volume?
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
When you watch a candidates’ debate on television, do you feel your questions are answered? Or do you feel more like you’re watching a series of live campaign ads? The problem may not be as simple as the integrity of the candidates, it might be the format of the debates themselves.
Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, writes in a June 12 column in the Christian Science Monitor that the televised debates between presidential hopefuls, which were once such a useful tool for voters wanting to compare candidates’ stances on important issues, have become a cumbersome mess full of showmanship and resembling “talent shows” more than actual discussions about the issues.
Chinni contends that this is largely attributed to having more candidates staying in the races than ever before. The “compressed schedule” means candidates “with a prayer and a few bucks” aren’t necessarily forced or encouraged to drop out if they feel they won’t place well in the race. This also leaves voters with more choices to make than before. All of this makes the debates very important, as the actual discussions between candidates offer more insight than individual campaign materials. But it also becomes a problem: with more candidates on the air, and more issues to discuss than ever before, each candidate gets less individual air time. Does this process serve the electorate well enough? Do these factors inhibit the thorough media coverage of the election process?
(Read Chinni’s full column here.)
Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, writes in a June 12 column in the Christian Science Monitor that the televised debates between presidential hopefuls, which were once such a useful tool for voters wanting to compare candidates’ stances on important issues, have become a cumbersome mess full of showmanship and resembling “talent shows” more than actual discussions about the issues.
Chinni contends that this is largely attributed to having more candidates staying in the races than ever before. The “compressed schedule” means candidates “with a prayer and a few bucks” aren’t necessarily forced or encouraged to drop out if they feel they won’t place well in the race. This also leaves voters with more choices to make than before. All of this makes the debates very important, as the actual discussions between candidates offer more insight than individual campaign materials. But it also becomes a problem: with more candidates on the air, and more issues to discuss than ever before, each candidate gets less individual air time. Does this process serve the electorate well enough? Do these factors inhibit the thorough media coverage of the election process?
(Read Chinni’s full column here.)
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Ethnic Media for President
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Newsflash to the presidential candidates: Nearly a quarter of the country consumes ethnic media, according to a 2006 poll by New America Media. So it's no surprise that Spanish-language TV network Univision recently asked that the presidential candidates participate in a Spanish-language debate. The request comes from the highest-rated Spanish-language TV network. Univision has high viewership among young adults and viewership ratings above CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to the LA Times.
The network hopes to televise a debate for each party on back to back Sundays in September, according to the L.A. Times, and the debates are likely to be held in Miami and focus on immigration issues. The debates "would mark a rare foray into presidential politics" for Univision, the article noted. They would also be the first entirely Spanish-language debates conducted for a U.S. presidential election.
So far New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd have accepted the invitation to participate. Not a bad idea, as the Democratic presidential candidates are said to be "courting Hispanic voters like never before" because of early primaries in heaviy Hispanic-populated states, according to The New York Times on Sunday.
To learn more about Univision's request, visit: http://www.freepress.net/news/23687
The network hopes to televise a debate for each party on back to back Sundays in September, according to the L.A. Times, and the debates are likely to be held in Miami and focus on immigration issues. The debates "would mark a rare foray into presidential politics" for Univision, the article noted. They would also be the first entirely Spanish-language debates conducted for a U.S. presidential election.
So far New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd have accepted the invitation to participate. Not a bad idea, as the Democratic presidential candidates are said to be "courting Hispanic voters like never before" because of early primaries in heaviy Hispanic-populated states, according to The New York Times on Sunday.
To learn more about Univision's request, visit: http://www.freepress.net/news/23687
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)