As much as possible, we try to stay clear of politics on this blog, but there’s a pair of bills before the US Congress that, if passed, would have a huge negative impact on the Internet we all know and love. The bills are the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

A number of Web-based companies are blacking out portions of their sites today in protest against the measures, including Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, Reddit, BoingBoing, Craigslist and others.

The Internet isn’t broke, and there’s no need for a new US law to attempt to fix it, with all the unintended consequences that entails.

The best thing US citizens can do is contact their elected representative to oppose the acts. You can find information to do so here.

Here’s more information:

Wikipedia

Electronic Frontier Foundation (PDF)

Reddit

WordPress

Google

Print Friendly

Today, the official presidential web site underwent a makeover. Check it out, and read about the changes. Slight Update: The NYT’s Bits Blog has more detail from an outsider’s perspective.

Print Friendly

Editorial comment: It’s interesting how many of the sites listed below are using wordpress.com or blogspot.com for their inaugural coverage. don’t know what it says about their CMS’s, but there it is. – bryan

Along with the “professional media” and the millions of people who are in town for the inaugural in Washington, DC this week, the city will be crawling with student journalists. Below are links to some of the college news media who are participating in covering  the events:

The Pitt News, University of Pittsburgh: Three editors are in DC and blogging at TPN Live. The inaugural URL is here.

The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: Reporters and photographers are in DC. Reporters have Flip cameras, and photogs are also contributing to a Washington Post project. Check their blog here.

The Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University: Lots of coverage. See it at their home page.

George Mason University: close to DC, they are providing coverage here.

Doane College student media: Coverage here.  More here.

GW Hatchet, George Washington University – situated within the security zone, the GW Hatchet is providing coverage as well here.

The Iowa State Daily, Iowa State University: They have several students at the inaugural who will be posting stories that you can follow here.

San Jose State University – Students are blogging from their trip to the inaugural at 44 Years to the 44th President.

The Daily Gamecock, University of South Carolina – blogging from the inauguration at the Daily Gamecock @ Inauguration 2009.

The Lariat, Baylor University – Baylor’s newspaper has four students at the inaugural (“The editor and one staff writer received media credentials for the swearing-in ceremony. Another writer received a ticket from our local congressman. The photographer is on roaming status” – Julie Freeman), blogging at Lariat on the Hill, and also posting stories at the home site.

Student Life, Washington University – St. Louis, MO: Journalists are blogging from Washington DC, and also updating at their home site.

The State News, Michigan State University – The State News – which covered both conventions, “has two reporters and two photographers in Washington for Obama’s inauguration,” says Omar Sofradzija, editorial adviser. Check out the inauguration coverage at their special section.

The Daily Mustang,, Southern Methodist U: SMU has six journalism students on the ground in D.C. Most are filing blog items for the SMU Daily Mustang, a new online-only news site produced by Division of Journalism classes. The SMU Daily Campus also has a reporter in D.C. The two newsrooms are collaborating on coverage, which includes stories, blog items, photos and video. Check it out here.

The Daily Pennsylvanian, University of Pennsylvania: Four students covering the inauguration festivities.

More to come.

Print Friendly

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

A few things to note: I saw a lot of students using Twitter and quite a few using CoverItLive to liveblog the returns. Quite a few maps as well, and lots of video. I’ll be curious to hear reports of how those efforts worked out.

And kudos to all those student journalists who witnessed and reported history last night as the U.S. elected Barack Obama president.

And if your student media org isn’t on the list, you can still be added. e-mail me: scmurley -at- gmail.com.

Print Friendly

UPDATE: I’m twittering tonight, following some of the feeds from college media and others. You can follow CICM here.

I’m going to try to highlight some of the student efforts taking place today and tonight. With record voter turnout expected in a historic election, there should be plenty of angles to cover. This post will be updated with new links as they come in. If your student media organization is doing something with multimedia/online reporting for this election, drop a comment below or send me an e-mail – scmurley -at- gmail.com and I’ll put it in here.

Just because I’m in the spirit of continuous election coverage, I’ve included a Google map Gadget that is supposed to have continuously updated election results coming in in a few hours. (via TechPresident). UPDATE: I’ve also embedded a Google map with links to all the schools mentioned below.

View Larger Map

Here are some links to student newspaper election coverage in swing states (Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennylvania, Florida, Colorado, Nevada):

North Carolina

The Daily Tar Heel election blog and their Twitter stream

Duke Chronicle election blog

The Pendulum (Elon) – updated throughout the night, including Twitter feed.

Pennsylvania

Penn State Daily Collegian election coverage

Daily Pennsylvanian home page

Florida

The Independent Florida Alligator

Virginia

Va. Tech Collegiate Times election blog  plus a faculty donation database

Colorado

Colorado Daily news section

Nevada

Nevada Sagebrush election coverage

UN-Reno J-School – election coverage here.

Illinois

Northern Star – Twittering from Obama rally in Chicago. Also, live blogs from two columnists here and here

Daily Eastern News – Will be liveblogging local returns and updating interactive map.

Daily Illini – broadcasting live (via the217.com). Also, voting problems in Champaign-Urbana.

Indiana

Indiana Daily Student politics section

The Shield – liveblogging local election results and a Google map.

Iowa

Iowa State Daily -  Election Coverage includes an updated map, video, blogs and slideshows.

Ohio

KentNewsNet -Photos, video, audio updated throughout the day.

Missouri

The Maneater at U. Missouri

Michigan

The State News – live blog tonight, twitter feed from Chicago, etc.

Michigan Daily – liveblog begins at noon central. Posting photos to Flickr. Election section.

New York

WUSB (Stony Brook) – Democracy Now! broadcast this evening with WUSB reporters calling in reports. Also, Stonybrooknow.com, a site run by j-school students from various media outlets, is running live this election day. (via Isobel Breheny-Schafer)

Syracuse – Newhouse School students shoot video and Twitter. Indexed here.

Georgia

Red and Black – will be liveblogging at 6 p.m. with a continually updated interactive map (via Ed Morales)

Tennessee

InsideVandy election coverage

Texas

The Daily Texan election coverage

Wyoming

Northwest Trail – Northwest College will be livestreaming coverage beginning at 9:30 p.m. Mountain (11:30 Eastern)

California

Daily Californian (Berkeley) – video, audio, and stories updated throughout the day.

The Spartan Daily (SJSU) – will be liveblogging this evening. (via Kyle Hansen)

Louisiana

LSU’s Reveille – The Reveille is liveblogging today (although reader comments are disabled), and has a full page of election coverage.

Kentucky

The Kentucky Kernel – The Kentucky Kernel is using VuVox for a photo-panorama on their election page, and will be providing live coverage throughout the evening.

Washington, DC

The GW Hatchet – Election coverage here.

So far, I haven’t found anyone in Ohio who’s doing something special for the election. Maybe I’m wrong. I’d be happy to update. UPDATE: Thanks to Mark Goodman for reminding me that Kent State is in Ohio. (Doh!)

If you’re interested in the professional coverage of election day, here’s a pretty good round-up of online sources for news from the New York Observer. Megan Taylor has another list of election-related sources for the addicts among us.

Print Friendly