Since its launch, the most-viewed posts on this little blog of mine have been those with the words ‘sex’ or ‘Obama’ in the headline. Am I attempting to exploit the blogosphere’s fascination with the latter here? Absolutely. (Happy Thanksgiving!)
A brief rundown of college media’s Obama-mania on and around Election Day 2008:
- An Associated Collegiate Press collection of campus newspaper front pages on the day after the election (viewable slideshow-style) and side pieces on the papers’ sudden uber-popularity among readers looking to preserve history (and a wonderful rebuttal post by Bryan Murley at the Center for Innovation in College Media on the importance of not reading too much into the one-day printerrific lovefest)
The post-election front page of The Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon.
- Examples of new media-tastic campus press election coverage, including NewsHub’s live updates at Hofstra University and election day (and night) footage at Chicago’s Grant Park captured by Columbia College Chicago j-students (the only college media personnel granted access to the area)
- Recaps of racial controversies accompanying the otherwise positive historic event, including a cartoon run in The Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona containing the ‘N word’ that caused a stir and the buzz around a set of vaguely-racist leaflets slipped inside the student paper at Lehigh University
- A look back at college newspapers’ overwhelmingly pro-Obama presidential endorsements and the flak one student paper at a conservative Christian school received for favoring the soon-to-be president-elect over McCain
- And finally, an interesting pre-election piece by The Michigan Review questioning just how much, and what kind, of an impact the college press actually has on student voters
