University journalism students have come together to form the state’s largest election team, “MI First Election.” Students from about a dozen journalism classes are covering the 2012 election, focusing on the viewpoints of voters their age.
During the presidential debate, two teams of journalism students streamed video reactions of MSU students to the presidential debates using their smartphones. Students also live-tweeted using the hashtag, #mifirstelection, and are developing a Storify feed to summarize some of the best student-generated comments on social media.
As a part of this effort, students will cover everything from the presidential race to state, county, school, city and township elections. They will write, record audio, shoot photos and video and then post on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Storify, Ustream and YouTube.
“MI First Election” is collaborating with local professional news organizations, and will be on the air with CAS’ public radio and television station WKAR. The initiative includes reporting by the Capital News Service team, the Great Lakes Echo news service, the computer-assisted reporting class, the public affairs reporting classes and the broadcasting classes. The public affairs reporting class manages a dozen hyperlocal websites. All students are welcome to join.