 |
|
Nick Meador
On Wednesday afternoon, I told my brother that I had been asked to visit the Live Blogging event and do a report for SpartanEdge. He replied, “So…you’re going to cover people…who are covering the debate?” The question had me dumbfounded, but I attended nonetheless. MSU journalism instructor (and SpartanEdge publisher) Bonnie Bucqeroux had arranged for 135 of her Intro to Mass Media students to participate in a highly experimental effort in citizen journalism. Over 160 students showed up. The goal: to post live responses on a Detroit News blog as the CNN/YouTube Republican debate happened. “I think it’s amazing that the Detroit News would trust us with this,” says Bucqueroux. Detroit News staffers weren’t even present; they monitored the blogging from home base. In order to accomplish this unprecedented feat, the students were partitioned into various groups. In room 145 of the CAS building, just over 100 students used iClickers to vote on poll questions. The questions were posted on a projection screen by a small team of question generators at the front of the room. Graduate Assistant Robin Blom organized and ran the whole iClicker operation in CAS 145. According to Bucqueroux, he put in a tremendous number of hours helping to organize the event. MSU journalism freshman Tracy Key volunteered to be a question generator in order to get extra credit for her JRN 108 honor section. “I think it sort of shows [the live bloggers] how the general opinion has been going, and what issues people are split on, to give them more insight,” says Key. The poll results were one of the most interesting aspects of the night, since they related to the debate topic at hand. On question #14 – “What is your stance on abortion?” – 78 said pro-choice, 23 said pro-life, and 7 said not sure. The last question (#30) asked, “Who won the debate?” 45 said Huckabee, 30 said Guiliani (the poll leader up to the point of the CNN/YouTube debate), 7 said McCain, 7 said Romney, and 10 said other. Poll responses were posted in room 145, and then sent via text message to a laptop in room 154, where someone wrote the results on a chalkboard in front of the live bloggers. That group of about a dozen students were huddled around a TV watching the debate and typing feverishly on their laptops. One confusing point was that poll results were written up as percentages, when in fact each digit represented a voting student. The number of votes was sometimes above 100, and sometimes below. The function of “truth squad” members was to research questionable or controversial information on Google to assist the bloggers in accurate and insightful reporting. Counters watched another TV to keep track of how many times certain topics or people were mentioned, and timers used stopwatches to determine how much screen time each candidate got. Bucqueroux claims that students evenly partitioned themselves into the various roles. “What’s amazing is that it all worked out,” says Bucqueroux, happy that she didn’t have to assign positions. All of the students seemed willing to participate, and it’s no mystery why. The mood was very energetic, and everyone there had a sense that they were doing something new and exciting. More importantly, this kind of citizen journalism could spark concern that will lead to further political participation and heightened knowledge of candidates and issues. The result could be a healthier democracy – or at least one in which more young adults have a voice. However, this also makes it possible for bloggers to squeeze ill-conceived rants in next to balanced analytical ideas. For example, one student posted a homophobic excursion entitled “Gay Marriage” at 9:48 pm. The post didn’t address how the issue was discussed in the debate, but instead only listed the author’s beliefs in a manner devoid of ethical journalism. Granted, that post was an exception. For the most part, the blog contained respectful writing that responded to specific quotations from candidates or results of student polls. “If nothing else, many of these students are first time voters, and I don’t think they would have sat down to watch the whole debate otherwise,” says Bucqueroux.
The quote of the night: “Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office,” said Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister.
|
|
||
