February 28, 2008
UW students hit the road to cover presidential campaigns
David Domke’s students are hitting the road. Twelve of the 16 members of his University of Washington class in online journalism and politics leave late this week to cover the Tuesday caucuses and primaries in Texas. They’ll fan out to Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, having already covered caucuses and primaries in Idaho and Washington state.
They’re also being taken seriously.
Their writing has gotten play at such outlets as The Dallas Morning News, The Seattle Times and The Huffington Post, an Internet newspaper known for political writing. The students have landed interviews with Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire; were escorted by a member of Sen. Barack Obama’s team into his rally at Key Arena in Seattle; and gained access to a Republican caucus in south Seattle after initially being kept out.
They have created a forum for their work ( http://www.seattlepoliticore.org/ ), a blog that combines traditional reporting, the nuts and bolts of caucuses and primaries, insights from other news outlets and first-person commentary.
“It’s somewhere between the voice of mainline journalism and the rancor of the blogosphere: part journalism, part pundit, part political newbies,” said Domke, a communication professor and head of journalism at the UW.
The students have posted YouTube videos of their work in Idaho, including footage of the two hours they spent stuck in winter weather at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington’s Cascade Range. Using cell phones and laptop computers, they continued gathering information so as to lose no time after arriving at the caucuses.
And what have they learned along the way?
The basics of political reporting, obviously, but also some of the ways political campaigns handle student reporters. When Obama’s campaign headed to Seattle, his point person, Jeff Giertz, quickly responded to Domke’s requests for eight press passes to the Stand for Change rally. Later, after police locked doors and kept out additional people, also keeping out additional reporters from local TV and radio outlets, Giertz came to the door and vouched for the UW students.
In contrast, according to Domke and his students, a Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign did not return phone calls and generally ignored requests for information.
As part of the Online Journalism and Politics course, Domke emphasizes groundwork and attention to detail. As part of the Texas trip, for example, several members of the class assembled lists of field organizers for each of the candidates, lists of experts such as political science professors at the University of Texas, maps to political meetings and campaign headquarters, hotel addresses and even five-day weather forecasts.
In Texas, the students will partner with their counterparts at the University of Texas who are writing about the presidential campaigns and speak in several journalism classes at the university. While a dozen members of Domke’s class are in Texas, the remaining four will cover the Ohio primary from Seattle.
After the primaries, class members will produce a magazine on the 2008 election and their experiences covering it.
Several students said Online Journalism and Politics has made them better reporters and more knowledgeable citizens.
Speaking of the class’s Web site, student Liz Burlingame said, “I came to see the different scope we offer to people. Along with broad political topics, we show citizens narrow, on-the-ground reporting.”
A fellow student spoke about hands-on learning. “You can memorize all the greatest tips from all the greatest journalists in the world,” said Devon Mills, “but nothing will match what you can learn when you actually get out there and learn for yourself.”
At seattlepoliticore.org, other students, including Emily Kim and Laura Mansfield, posted reflections on their reporting.
The UW Department of Communication, the College of Arts & Sciences, Undergraduate Academic Affairs and the students themselves are funding the trip to Texas.
“This has been a profound experience, watching the students grow as citizens and journalists,” Domke said. “They have gone from 0 to 60 miles an hour in their coverage of presidential politics, and I’ve learned a lot from them. Time and again I’ve been challenged by how seriously they’re taking their roles as citizens. They approached these experiences with a soberness, a sincerity that is heartening.”
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For more information, contact Domke at (206) 685-1739 or domke@u.washington.edu .
