Halifax, NS – Students at two of Halifax's leading journalism and broadcast arts programs have joined forces to create a comprehensive guide to the candidates and districts in the 2012 Halifax Regional Municipality civic election and, on election night, will produce a live webcast of results and reaction from across the region.
More than 100 University of King’s College journalism students and over 50 Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) radio and television arts students are involved in the project, which will give them real-time journalism experience in the field and help to raise awareness of the importance of voting on municipal election day. The students have set up a dedicated website, www.hrmvotes.ca, which is live and continues to be populated throughout this final week. The site contains an interactive map as well as candidate and district profiles. Fresh news and stories will be added throughout Election Day, with live coverage set to begin at 7 p.m. on October 20.
“This will be the most comprehensive election coverage in town,” says King’s professor Fred Vallance-Jones, who is helping to co-ordinate the project. “The students are gaining a huge amount of hands-on, real-life journalism experience, and it is an exercise in civic engagement for them as well. They are meeting the candidates and are involved in the issues. That is an important aspect of this project.”
The team will be working with NSCC television production students during the webcast at the college’s Waterfront campus.
NSCC co-ordinator, Radio & Television Arts faculty Erin Moore adds, “This is an excellent opportunity to bring the two post-secondary institutions together. They are sharing the anchor duties and sharing the field work. It not only gives them an opportunity to be working under the pressure involved with election coverage, but offers each student a fresh perspective by having the two schools working as one team."
The site for the Halifax local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
