Hofstra students prepare live election night coverage for TV, radio, web

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Kimberly Donohue is a student majoring in journalism at Hofstra University. But on election night she'll be one of the anchors on a multiplatform broadcast dubbed Hofstra Votes Live.

"It's going to be a learning experience no matter what," Donohue said. "It's going to give me a lot of opportunities to think on my feet, really try to guide the narrative with how things are going on this night."

It's a Herculean task involving over 150 students, faculty and staff who for the past many weeks have been building a coverage plan.

The goal is to ultimately deliver a live broadcast on the web, radio and campus television, covering the national, regional and local races.

"They always do election specials but this is the first time we've blown it out to make it television, radio, digital altogether," said Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of the Herbert School at Hofstra University. "That's the way media is moving, that's the world into which students are graduating in and we wanted them to experience that."

The live broadcast is an extension of the school's civic engagement campaign to encourage students to get involved and vote. Over the course of the past two or so months, they got over 600 students to register or apply for an absentee ballot.

The broadcast will run from 8 p.m. to midnight. It can be heard live on WRHU-88.7 FM and can be seen at Hofstra.edu/voteslive, Facebook.com/HofstraSchoolofComm and campus TV.