Prin@thePolls—a Dynamic Night of Live Election Broadcasting
“As more and more results come in, the Prin @ the Polls newsroom becomes more hectic,” students tweeted midway into over five hours of live election coverage on November 8. Approximately 75 students participated in the broadcast, with the Principia Internet Radio (PIR) and the PCTV studios providing a collaborative learning laboratory for students in political science and mass communication classes. New this year was a livestreamed television broadcast on YouTube as a lead-up to the evening.
Participation in the broadcast resulted in a memorable hands-on learning experience, evidenced by this sampling of student comments:
- “I learned how to adapt, be flexible, and on my toes.”
- “I loved working the soundboard and being involved in something that felt real and important.”
- “Hectic situations can seem scary, but once I trusted that others were pulling their weight and focused on my own work, everything ran smoothly.”
- “I loved the intensity and feeling of responsibility in the air. And I learned to work with students I didn’t know.”
Along with the exhilaration of the evening, student learning and engagement ran deep. For example, students in the Constitutional Law class provided listeners historical background on the Supreme Court; its relationship with the executive branch; policy struggles between the Court, President, and Congress; and issues confronting the next Supreme Court. At another point in the broadcast, freshmen from the Pulpit and Politics class shared their research on the partisan and ideological leanings of certain religious traditions. “Faculty certainly support,” says political science professor Dr. Brian Roberts, “but this is truly a student-run endeavor—from researching particular races to recording promotional spots on PIR to presenting roundtable discussions on key issues.”
Early-Morning Exit Polling
Beginning at 6 a.m., students conducted exit polls in precincts across Jersey County, interviewing just under 1,000 voters. “Among the lessons learned is how hard it is to have systematic voter fraud—both political parties would have to cooperate!” Professor John Williams, of the Political Science Department, explains. “The questions students asked were not about who people voted for. Instead, they examined underlying attitudes on key issues such as gun control, religious freedom, and entitlement programs. We were also interested in voters’ views about negative advertising, polling, and the media.”
During the live broadcast, students ran a newsroom near the PIR studio, verified the most recent information on election returns, and relayed confirmed facts to the radio hosts. Those in former Christian Science Monitor reporter and visiting professor Gail Russell Chaddock’s Media Reporting and Writing class assisted with bottom- and top-of-the-hour news updates. Juniors Brie Burns (pictured above, on left) and Zeke Ouellette co-hosted the PIR broadcast, a role they were well-prepared for after traveling with Dr. Roberts on the “Race to the White House” field program. “We shook hands with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and about 12 other candidates who were still in the race when we visited New Hampshire and Iowa,” Brie says. “It’s been an incredible learning journey. And, honestly, back then no one expected Donald Trump to win. People were saying that he would never be the Republican nominee and would certainly not win the election.”
As was true with broadcasts across the nation, Prin @ the Polls awaited final election results late into the night. A faculty panel provided the final wrapup report on PIR, noting what would become key topics of discussion in subsequent days, including the question, What did pollsters miss? Since the election, students involved in Prin @ the Polls have gone on to explore that question and many related ones in class discussion, projects, and presentations.
See a curated page of the Prin @ the Polls social media takeover on Instagram and Twitter.