On election night, newsrooms around the state will be shoulder-to-shoulder with writers, reporters and editors, all striving to get the stories quickly and accurately.
But nowhere in Michigan will there be a larger, more fully staffed newsroom than at Michigan State University, where as many as 200 student-journalists will gather to cover the big story.
Forming the state’s largest election-coverage team, the students are part of “MI First Election,” a group of students from more than a dozen MSU journalism classes that have been covering nearly every aspect of the election, from township board contests all the way to the presidential race.
The students have posted stories on the MI First Election website, as well as on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Storify, Ustream and YouTube.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for them to do something that won’t come along for another four years,” said Troy Hale, a faculty member in MSU’s School of Journalism who developed and helps oversee the project. “In addition to the practical experience they gain, they also are learning more about the democratic process and what it means to have a voice.”
The students also are covering the elections from the students’ perspective.
“They are looking at subjects that they care about,” Hale said, “including student loans, jobs and so on.”
MI First Election is collaborating with the national “Democracy in Action” project, a nationwide collaboration of university journalists covering the 2012 election.
On election night, the student-journalists will gather in Studio F of the WKAR studios on the MSU campus. There they will cover every aspect of the election, including doing a number of three-minute cut-ins on WKAR-TV and radio, MSU’s public broadcasting affiliates.