Educating journalists using the election

I have a lot of articles about the election and its aftermath from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Obama re-elected edition) on Daily Kos, so I'll be posting them for another couple of days. Tonight's installment features a pair of articles about how universities used the election as an opportunity to educate their journalism students.

First up, the University of Cincinnati on YouTube: UC Journalism Students Tweet the Elections

UC journalism students helped The Cincinnati Enquirer monitor Hamilton County voting precincts and covered the events of Nov. 6 via social media. Their election work day started at 5:30 a.m. at a local eatery and went late into the night, and included election monitoring, tweeting, interviews with and photos of voters, poll workers and others. Photo credit: UC students and faculty. Video by Elissa Yancey.

Next, the University of Nevada, Reno: Journalism students enjoy ‘unforgettable experience’ providing election coverage
Students report from University of Nevada, Reno and various Washoe County locations throughout election night
By Claudene Wharton
November 7, 2012

With the eyes of the nation on Nevada, one of the nation's "battleground" states in the 2012 presidential election, journalism students at the University of Nevada, Reno, with their professors, provided a barrage of election-related news and real-time updates Tuesday. Text, video, photos, audio, packages, articles and updates on a wide variety of relevant election-related topics are posted at http://journalism.unr.edu/election/, where other media throughout the country are also invited to download and use the material free of charge, with proper attribution.

About 50 students of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism and Center for Advanced Media Studies participated in the election-night coverage, filing stories beginning a couple of days before the election and continuing beyond midnight on Tuesday. They explored topics such as the state's pivotal Hispanic vote and what happens in the event of an electoral tie, getting perspective from national subject experts at the University, including Emma Sepulveda, Latino Research Center director and Eric Herzik, political science department chairman and often-quoted political pundit. They produced a live-streamed Wolf Pack Week telecast 7 - 8 p.m. on Tuesday, as well as provided updates throughout the evening for NPR station KUNR located on campus.
...
The atmosphere in the School's newsrooms had all the buzz and excitement of a typical media newsroom on election night, and it was difficult to ascertain who was enjoying the experience more - the faculty members or the students.

The two universities I quoted above weren't the only ones to take advantage of the opportunity. Michigan State did as well.

MSU students cover election in state’s ‘biggest newsroom’
October 31, 2012

EAST LANSING, Mich. — 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.

Here's to all these students learing the lessons of their lifetimes covering the election of their lives--so far. Also, here's to better journalists in the future.

Also, like the videos I included in yesterday's entry, this is a story I should have used when it was still newsworthy, but I think I can still turn into an evergreen article. Wish me luck!