WCU students will have a live coverage of the 2022 midterm elections highlighting local Jackson County elections.
The live news program starts at 7:30 p.m. on election night, Nov. 8, and will be streamed on the Western Carolina University Communication Department’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
The program is produced by communication’s broadcasting and journalism students in four classes and two student organizations, with over 40 students participating in the production of the program. The show will be going live from the TV studio in the Center for Applied Technology.
Professors Katerina Spasovska, Matt Binford, and John Walsh created the idea of the live coverage to fit into the curriculum of four communication classes: News Reporting I, Magazine and Feature Writing, Television Practicum II, and Television Production II.
The producer, Logan Johnson, is a student in the Television Practicum course and is looking forward to the scale of their work.
“It will probably be the most complicated show to produce because it is live and has multiple reporters and stories,” said Johnson.
Professors and students will use a new live-streaming box called the Black Magic Web Presenter to cover the elections and other equipment in the studio from when it was last updated in 2017.
As Johnson explained, the department has only done two other live streams, the first covered Student Government Association elections in Spring 2022 with equipment from student Tanner Holland, and the other was last Thursday, Oct. 27, with National Broadcasting Society as a test for this upcoming coverage.
Three student anchors will lead the coverage. Also included in the coverage will be a 10 minute pre-recorded interview with political science professor Dr. Chris Cooper.
Election coverage will be on Jackson County Commissioner and Sheriff, U.S. District 11, N.C. District 119, and U.S Senate positions. Preliminary results will come from a representative of the Jackson County Board of Elections live via Zoom during the show after the polls close.
Students will also be covering popular topics for this election during the stream. Two to four students from the courses put packages together for topics such as student loans, abortion, unaffiliated voters, and early voting.
For more information, contact Logan Johnson at ljohnson4@catamount.wcu.edu and Josie Spence at jcspence4@catamount.wcu.edu.