This blog is the official UWMCDM archive of digital media used on election day 2008. It is a project of the Autumn2008 Digital Democracy class.

Project Description
Follow one or more news channels on television, web, or radio on election night from 6 PM – 10 PM. When findings, results and other news are announced relating to the presidential campaign or Washington campaigns (Governor, Initiatives, Reichert/Burner House race), then tweet the announcement. You will need to set up an account at http://twitter.com/ if you don’t have one already.

The results will be compiled and can be found by searching on Twitter for #election08

Throughout the evening, students will post short commentary/analysis relating to the tweets. (Kathy will add you as a contributor, just ask!)

How to Participate

1. Sign up for one or more news channels.
   Check the “Who’s Doing What” page on the blog, pick your news channels from the list below. (If you’re monitoring a channel not currently listed, please add it!)
2. If you are tweeting, sign up for a twitter account if you don’t already have one and send your user name as a response to this email. When you tweet be sure that you add #election08 to the text so that it will be easily filtered out of the Twitter stream. Kathy will set up a feed of all students tweeting this event.If Twitter goes down (a very real possibility), you’ll need to post updates directly to the blog. If you have not gotten “write” privileges beforehand, you’ll need to pick an appropriate blog post and report in the comments section!
3. If you plan on providing blogging commentary and analysis throughout the evening on the twittering and themes that are emerging,  you need to be an author on the DigitalDemocrac08 blog. If you have not already been added to the digitaldemocracy08 blog (it will show up in your WordPress “Dashboard” list if you have been added),send Kathy the email address associated with your WP account and she will add you as an editor.

Television Stations Being Monitored

• CNN
• FOX
• NW Cable News (Channel 2, Seattle)
• CRCCTV (Channel 22, Auburn)

Online News Sites Being Monitored
See FeedRaider

• CNN – Politics – No Feed
• New York Times – Politics
  
• New York Times – Political Blog
• PBS
• ProPublica
• USA Today – Political Blog
• Washington Post
• Seattle Times
• Anchorage Daily News – Sen. Ted Stevens
• Fox News – Elections

Blogs Being Monitored
See FeedRaider

• Memeorandum
• Real Clear Politics
• Taegen Goddard’s Political Wire
• Talking Points Memo- Election Central
• TechPresident
• TownHall – No Feed
• FiveThirtyEight.com

Facebook Pages Being Monitored

• Barack Obama
• John McCain

Twitter Feeds Being Monitored

• Barack Obama
• John McCain
• Summize: #Election08
• Summize: #McCain
• Summize: #Obama
• Twitter: Election2008
• Twitter VoteReport

YouTube Channels Being Monitored

• Video Your Vote
• Barack Obama
• John McCain

Class Activities On Election Day
Some students are watching television coverage and others are monitoring online coverage. Some students are microblogging with Twitter, reporting election returns and monitoring Twitter chat (#election08). Others may be tracking a candidate’s campaign blog as well as pages on social networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace, to explore their communications between voters and them.

Another student is compiling friends’ status updates from Facebook for the night of the election to be analyzed later by party affiliation, content, and even boldness.

Another student is producing an Election Special that will be streamed on crcctv.org and broadcast on cable channel 22 in Pierce County, Washington. The Q&A will focus on website use, youth voters, and results for both Pierce County and the nation.

Yet another group of students is planning to make a video focusing on Seattle voters, conducting interviews about the voting process. The video will be hosted at YouTube but accessible from this site.