Constant comment

The MSU J-School livebloggers kept the postings flowing throughout the two-hour CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Primary debate. Click here to see the archived debateblog on The Detroit News site

Videos

The first four videos (below) were created and posted on YouTube during the debate (best viewed in Firefox)

Videoblog: National debt, crime, Ron Paul

Videoblog: Romney's indecisiveness

Videoblog: Immigration

Videoblog: Which candidate do you prefer?

Pre-debate comments from the class

Question submitted: Liveblogger Alyssa Imbordino submitted a question about Darfur

Instructor Bonnie Bucqueroux' dog Schmoopsie submitted a question about global warming (Debate Moderator Anderson Cooper used Schmoops as an example of the kinds of videos CNN would NOT be featuring)

An experiment in citizen journalism

More than 160 Michigan State University students participated in producing content and commentary for The Detroit News during the CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Primary debate on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. The core team of livebloggers (see below) posted their comments directly onto The Detroit News Web site as the debate unfolded. The livebloggers also integrated videoblogs produced by video editor Phil Ganz and his team of shooters: Tony Towns, Megan Sanctorum, Sarah DeBoer and Chelsea Lewis (you can view the videos in the column on the right).

Othersupporting teams included:

• The iClicker responders and question generators - Approximately 100 students used their clickers to respond to questions generated by their peers. Participating students watched the debate on multiple TV screens in a WKAR (PBS) studio, and their responses were sent by Instant Messaging to the livebgloggers, so that they could insert the responses immediately into their postings
• The advance team - This team generated issue and candidate summaries with links to relevant Web sites
• The truth squad - This group sat with the livebloggers and helped them with instant research
• The numbers team - This specialty team counted the number of times various candidates made references to issues and other candidates and public officials
• The timing team - Using stopwatches (in hand and online), this team kept track of how much airtime each candidate received during the debate

Our livebloggers

Andy Balaskovitz	Eric Chiu	Adam Delay
Christina Field	Phil Ganz (Video)	Alisha Green
Olivia Grzasko	Nicholas Howison	Ayssa Imbordino
Zach Jay	Kelsie Joestgen	Dmarco Jones
Megan Kirk	Emily Lawler	Lauren Lograsso
Amber McDonald	Skye McDonald	Daniel Redford
Brittany Shammas	Joy Walter

The liveblogging event was organized by Instructor Bonnie Bucqueroux and Graduate Assistant Robin Blom in collaboration with The Detroit News (special thanks to Nancy Hanus, Felix Grabowski, Jonathan Morgan and George Bullard). Special thanks also to J-School Director Jane Briggs-Bunting and to J-School Faculty Member L. A. Dickerson for their support and participation.