Nicholas Hirshon, a journalism professor at William Paterson and advisor of the university’s nationally recognized chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, always is looking for ways to give his students real-world experience.
That will never be more evident than today.
William Paterson journalism students will be at the forefront of an unprecedented initiative to bring together students across the country and the world to report on the 2024 presidential election through 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’s 24 hours of continuous coverage starts at noon 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.
“Journalists of all ages deserve a chance to cover the presidential race,” Hirshon said. “We hope Student News Live can help young reporters across the country jumpstart their careers.”
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.
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.
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.
William Paterson is the only participating institution from New Jersey.
And while the show goes live today, the preparation has been ongoing for months.
On Oct. 24, about a dozen William Paterson students produced a 30-minute television program that will air on the show. 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.
Seniors Aria Capria and Alexander Felix served as co-hosts.
They developed questions for the journalists with Hirshon’s guidance and included pre-recorded questions that William Paterson 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 at William Paterson, a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution.
Capria, a broadcast journalism major who serves as news director for the University’s radio station and host and co-producer at its television station, said she was thrilled to have the opportunity.
“In the climate of our world today, it’s very hard to ask these kinds of questions,” she said. “To give our campus and students across the nation the answers is very exciting.”
