Seniors traveled to North Carolina’s largest city to contribute to Creative Loafing Charlotte's accounts of the Democratic National Convention in September.
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Students from the School of Communications traveled to Charlotte, N.C., to help the city’s largest alternative weekly newspaper cover the Democratic National Convention on the same day as President Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech.
Led by instructor Colin Donohue, seniors in the fall semester “Multimedia Journalism” course conducted interviews, captured photos, filmed video and engaged audiences via social media for Creative Loafing Charlotte.
Creative Loafing focuses its coverage on news, features, culture, arts and entertainment, and Elon students tracked down stories that ranged from hard news, such as local reactions to the move of Obama’s acceptance speech into the Time Warner Cable Arena, to lighthearted features exploring the types of political merchandise hawked at the convention – and why people decide to buy it.
The Creative Loafing partnership offered students an opportunity to take what they learn in the classroom and use it for a professional media organization covering one of North Carolina’s biggest stories of the year. Creative Loafing distributes 46,000 copies each week to hundreds of locations in Charlotte, and combined with its website, stories reach more than 276,000 readers.
Some examples of their work include:
Women voters respond to First Lady’s Speech (Video by Ronda Ataalla and Shakori Fletcher)