Unanticipated opportunities for college media in the 2008 election cycle
March 30th, 2008 by Bryan(This post is part of the third Carnival of Journalism, hosted by Will Sullivan. Click here to read all the entries.)
Conventional wisdom said the Democratic nomination process for the 2008 presidential campaign would be over by February 5 - Super Tuesday. Ask Florida and Michigan politicians about that conventional wisdom sometime.
Despite the rancor that has recently surrounded the nomination fight in the Democratic presidential primaries, college media outlets have been given an opportunity they might not get again for a while.
With so many late season primaries still contested, students in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana and South Dakota have the chance to plan multimedia efforts around a hotly contested political race.
Most of it so far seems to be video-related.
You can see it in the live video stream from Hillary Clinton’s speech at the University of Pennsylvania from the Daily Pennsylvanian.
You can see it in the Temple News videos as campaigners come nearby to solicit votes. Likewise, the Oregon Daily Emerald’s video from an Obama campaign stop.
And, there’s the Indiana Daily Student’s video efforts on the campaign trail.
I’m sure there are other students polishing their video chops on high-profile events like these, and likely there will be more as the season goes on - at least through the end of the semester. If you know of other schools who are doing multimedia surrounding the campaign, drop me an e-mail or post them in the comments.
And while campaign visits are the easiest and “sexiest” events to drag out the video gear, I hope students will take the opportunity to do some further multimedia efforts surrounding the primary campaign. A couple of things I can list off the top of my head:
- A map of area polling stations for the primaries.
- An interactive guide to where the candidates stand on issues related to college students.
- A central landing page for all your primary coverage - video, audio, text, etc.
- A liveblog of a campus political visit or press conference.
The point being: make the most of the season to add to your multimedia toolkit on an important story. Take advantage of this unanticipated opportunity to cover a primary campaign that still isn’t decided.
