Royal Purple staffers cover campaign visits to Wisconsin by presidential hopefuls
CMR Staff Reports
Ideas for news stories can often come from personal experiences.
That goes for political coverage, too, as illustrated by coverage of a Donald Trump rally by staff of the student newspaper, The Royal Purple at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
“Students in a class after mine were talking about how the security and press were taking over their neighborhood because they live near the Holiday Inn in Janesville which hosted the Trump Rally.
“Many in the community said they opposed this choice, not only because of its close location to residential areas, but because it sends a political affiliation,” recalls Carol Terracina Hartman, adviser to The Royal Purple student newspaper.
“The students were commenting how they were involved just because of where they lived and the neighbors were all getting together and advising each other on how to be safe, get to work, get their kids to school, do their errands, and shopping in advance,” Hartman said.
“So I overheard this conversation and asked if the students would comment for The Royal Purple. I didn’t know if the News Editor Kimberly Wethal would assign this as part of the primary coverage or not, but it seemed like a valuable student voice – and certainly an authentic one.
“She did and it is a key part of the reporting.”
Here are links to Royal Purple coverage and commentary:
- http://royalpurplenews.com/crowd-divided-over-trump-rally/
- http://royalpurplenews.com/death-to-female-journalists-a-reporters-perspective/
- http://royalpurplenews.com/trumps-campaign-demonstrates-red-flags/
- http://royalpurplenews.com/battle-for-the-midwest-wisconsin-becomes-focus-for-presidential-hopefuls/
- http://royalpurplenews.com/ted-cruz-holds-janesville-rally-2/
Editor’s Note: The 2016 presidential race offers myriad reporting opportunities for college journalists, and College Media Review is publishing links of print, web and broadcast works. While some of the links are for coverage weeks back, CMR isn’t thinking so much of the “when” factor, but how educative and motivating it can be to see how other journalists, be they students or professionals, are covering the 2016 presidential campaigns. College media advisers are encouraged to send links of their students’ work to Debra Chandler Landis at [email protected].