Facebook Live at ElectionLand
The sound of democracy hit me when I arrived at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. ElectionLand was happening and the newsroom was full of journalists from around the world! I signed up to be a part of the Facebook Live team along with my classmate Sasha M Fountain and we were excited to join the fun.
We brainstormed with our awesome teacher Terry Parris Jr. from ProPublica about how we can engage people on Facebook while the election results came in. Most of our ideas were purely entertainment (like a Twister game of Trump v. Hillary), but ultimately we decided to do something that was not only be entertaining but also informative.
The day before the election, we filmed a Facebook Live video with Rachel Glickhouse from Univision and got a chance to experiment with the Mevo camera. It was a great learning experience for the videos we would produce on election day.
On election day, Sasha and I worked together to film two Facebook Live interviews with journalists working on ElectionLand. The first one was of Joe Amditis who interviewed Scott Klein from ProPublica. The second one was of Jeff Jarvis, Carrie Brown, Noa Radosh, and nancy.spiccia about how students were helping with ElectionLand. I loved being behind the scenes and helping everything come together. It really got me excited and made me realize that I love the video production side of journalism.
Sasha and I also filmed a Periscope video asking voters to record their experiences at the polls. I was a little nervous being on camera, but it was also really fun. I’m glad Sasha was by my side :-)
Towards the end of the day, while election results were pouring in, we set up a white board and broadcast a live color-in-the-states session! Thanks to Noa Radosh’s art skills, the U.S. map looked great and a lot of people tuned into our live video :-) It was highly engaged! ProPublica helped us out by sharing the video which sparked a huge increase in viewers, reactions, and comments. Being on camera can be intimidating, but I just had fun with it and tried my best to narrate what was going on. I especially loved responding to the audience’s questions and comments.
I think our video was a success because it was unique. Many people enjoyed the “old-school” method of us coloring in the states and our narration of what was going on. Since some of our audience were watching from abroad, they didn’t have access to mainstream media like cable television. Others simply didn’t have cable television and relied on Facebook to update them on election results. It felt good to provide a group of people with real-time information in a unique, interactive form.
I learned so much during my day as a Facebook Live producer. Not only was this experience educational, it was also meaningful. I’m thankful that I got to contribute to ElectionLand and help promote democracy.
