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William Paterson University is at the forefront of an unprecedented initiative to bring together students across the country and the world to report on the 2024 presidential election.
Nicholas Hirshon, a journalism professor and advisor of the University’s nationally recognized chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, co-founded Student News Live—a global coalition of high school and college journalism programs that will cover the election in a 24-hour online broadcast simulcast by iHeartRadio and PBS News Student Reporting Labs.
Student News Live has also received support from NBCU Academy, which is training participating students and providing them with a resource toolkit on political and election coverage.
Hirshon is partnering on this initiative with Rob Quicke, director of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University in West Virginia.
Participating universities have begun producing audio and video news content tied to Election Day. Colleges from across the country, from Colorado to Texas and from California to New York, will air live coverage, as will students in Ireland, Spain, and Nepal. WP is the only participating institution from New Jersey.
“Journalists of all ages deserve a chance to cover the presidential race. We hope Student News Live can help young reporters across the country jumpstart their careers,” Hirshon says.
Student News Live’s 24 hours of continuous coverage starts at 12 noon EST on Election Day. The 24-hour broadcast will air on StudentNewsLive.com, as well as the YouTube channels for PBS News Student Reporting Labs, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The audio from the feed will air on the iHeartRadio app and iHeart.com.
On October 24, about a dozen William Paterson students produced a 30-minute television program that will air on the Student News Live broadcast at 1 p.m. EST on Election Day.
They interviewed three journalists about political mis/disinformation on set in the WPTV studios: Robby Brod, a former reporter for WITF in Harrisburg, Issac Avilucea of Axios in Philadelphia, and Ken Burns of WHYY, also in Philadelphia.
Aria Capria ’25 and Alexander Felix ’25 served as co-hosts.
They developed questions for the journalists with Hirshon’s guidance and included pre-recorded questions that WP students across campus asked on camera. They covered a wide range of topics, including the impact of disinformation on Latino voters on Facebook and WhatsApp—a relevant topic for WP, a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution.
“In the climate of our world today, it’s very hard to ask these kinds of questions,” says Capria, a broadcast journalism major who serves as news director for the University’s Brave New Radio as well as host and co-producer of a WPTV news program. “To give our campus and students across the nation the answers is very exciting.”
10/29/24
