BEA2025

The 2024 election cycle was arguably one of the longest — and strangest — in United States history. The two major party candidates seemed to be locked in 244 days before the general election, and a potentially viable third party candidate emerged, the son of a political dynasty. But the following weeks saw events both serious — an assassination attempt, the withdrawal of the incumbent president from the race, questions about the viability of specific policy proposals from each candidate — and, frankly, weird — a candidate doing a YouTube video with a former sitcom star where he admitted staging a wreck between a bear carcass and a bicycle in Central Park, persistent false rumors of a vice presidential candidate’s lewd behavior with a couch, a presidential debate that devolved into a spat about who had the better golf handicap. Even the use of the word “weird” has become politicized.

How do students learn to cover these events, especially in a political landscape that is often marked by contentious discourse? And how do students learn to engage in critical thinking skills to be able to extract facts from political hyperbole?
Moderator: Kathleen M. Ryan, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado
Participants:
Nicole Clarity, Hofstra University; Clarity’s students won a 2023 Murrow award for their midterm election coverage.
Jay DeDapper, Marist Poll, Marist University; DeDapper leads the poll’s public education efforts, including outreach for student journalists about poll literacy.
Antonio Mora, University of Miami; Mora will discuss strategies to develop and implement successful election night coverage.
Leighton C. Peterson, Miami University; Peterson helps faculty and students navigate a landscape that privileges vocational preparation over critical thinking skills, often in a political environment that attempts to stifle robust political discourse.