COM Students Report the 2024 Presidential Election | BU Today

BUTV, BU News Service, Daily Free Press, and various COM classes will file stories throughout the historic day

With news feeds, social media accounts, and TV networks lighting up with election coverage, it’s easy to get sucked into a vortex of national news articles.

But don’t forget to tune in to the dynamic election day stories emerging right from BU’s campus. College of Communication students from a variety of courses and extracurriculars are picking up their reporter’s notebooks, microphones, cameras, and recorders to cover the historic face-off between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. With their reporting comes a fresh new perspective on national politics—that of Generation Z. US News reports that more than two-thirds of Americans ages 18 to 34 report that inflation is a major concern of theirs, as is abortion, gun control, and democracy.

And while their media careers are still budding, these COM students are bringing just as much fire to election coverage as other major media outlets, says Adam Boyajy (COM’03), station manager for BUTV and WTBU radio and a COM lecturer in film, television, and journalism. 

The students “are doing this because they really care about the project, and they’re serious journalists,” Boyajy says. “This whole process has been rewarding for them, and the attitude that they bring to it is very refreshing and very inspiring.”

BUTV and Boston University News Service (BUNS) are two of COM’s student-led organizations covering the election this year, in addition to the independent student newspaper the Daily Free Press and some journalism classes. BUTV, which Boyajy says has created election programming since 2012, will air this year’s show, United We Vote, on November 6 at 7:30 pm. United We Vote will feature guest interviews, man-on-the-street conversations with voters, coverage at local polling locations, and updates on presidential results. 

Student perspectives and voices are integral to the day’s programming, says co–executive producer Sydney Topf (COM’25). “We are students on top of being producers, but we’re also Gen Z voters,” she says. “So we know what Generation Z voters want to see.”

Accordingly, the show will cover absentee voting and the role of the Divine Nine—a group of black fraternities and sororities formed in the 20th century—in Kamala Harris’ campaign. That’s in addition to interviews with high-profile guests like Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016. Topf remembers how she felt when one of the show’s writers came up to her and told her that Kaine had agreed to be interviewed. She immediately texted her colleagues Sophia Falbo (COM’25) and Addison Cummings (COM’25), amazed and thrilled that the senator would be a part of their show. 

Looking back, Topf has a guess as to why Kaine agreed to work with them. 

“This is the next generation of voters, this is the next generation of reporters,” she says. “You want to be a part of this.” 

Over at BUNS, students have already started publishing preelection day stories, on topics including absentee ballot voting in Australia and political signs in Massachusetts, but coverage will ramp up on November 5. That night, editor-in-chief Falbo expects to be working late into the evening helping push out breaking news, live updates, and other day-of stories. “I’m beyond excited,” she says. “I really could not be more grateful for these opportunities.”

Falbo is also a coexecutive producer of the BUTV election show along with Topf and Cummings. The trio has been hustling since June to recruit the 50-some-person election show team and plan coverage. 

Cummings describes the show as “by students and for students. More than anything, we’re all functioning as a collective,” she says. 

2024 election has a particular dynamism

Students from journalism classes around COM are also covering the election. For example, the JO 351 Reporting with Audio and Video class, led by Tina McDuffie, a COM associate professor of the practice of journalism and BUTV faculty advisor, will hit the polls on the afternoon of November 5 to interview voters for video and audio segments. Meanwhile, McDuffie’s JO 502 TV Feature Reporting class will report up until the election for public broadcasting service Boston Neighborhood Network. Finally, the JO 400 Newsroom class and JO 550 Multimedia Storytelling class—taught by Gina Gayle, a COM associate professor of the practice and BUNS faculty advisor—will help with the BUNS election coverage. 

With two drastically different candidates that have transformed what campaigning looks like—see Harris’ “Brat” rebrand or Trump’s repeated podcast appearances—this election holds a particular dynamism that Gayle is urging her students to capture. “I really want to have students get a feel for the pulse and the energy,” she says, “so not only making good visual still moments, but adding audio and video to that.” 

Over at the Daily Free Press, BU’s independent student newspaper, student journalists will capture that pulse in a special 12-page presidential print edition coming out on Friday, November 8. Every section of the paper, from layout and graphics to opinion and news, is embracing election coverage, says editor-in-chief Mara Mellits (COM’26). 

“This is really unique,” Mellits says of the chance to cover the presidential race. “When I got the [editor-in-chief] position I was really excited that I would have a chance to oversee the election print and the coverage we’d be putting out.” 

Fortunately, all three news organizations have strong political reporting foundations to rely on: BUNS covered the 2022 midterm elections and the January New Hampshire primary. BUTV’s 2018 midterm election coverage won an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England chapter. The national NATAS governs a portion of the Emmy Awards. As for the 54-year-old Daily Free Press, it has a rich tradition of political coverage—whether that be midterms, mayoral races, or presidential elections. One of the paper’s 2016 presidential election prints hangs in the newsroom, reminding student editors of this tradition.

That foundation will be vital for student journalists as votes roll in, and pockets of BU’s campus transform into high-powered newsrooms. 

“That 24-hour time period is going to be the most chaotic, stressful, exciting, moment of our lives,” Topf says of the hours between election day and United We Vote going live. “It’s going to be something we won’t forget.”

Mellits expects a similar rush late Thursday, as editors put in a super late night working to publish the most up-to-date election news possible. But excitement about covering this historic moment, she says, provides the momentum they need to surge ahead. “If you’re doing this, you really love it,” Mellits says. “That’s why we’re putting in the time for it.” 

Boyajy emphasizes that in their coverage, student journalists haven’t shied away from their identity as this country’s freshman—yet undeniably influential—voting generation. 

“Hopefully people will tune in and feel like they got a unique perspective from young, passionate, caring journalists that are telling an authentic story about what’s happening in the world and in politics right now,” he says.

BUTV’s United We Vote will air at 7:30 pm on November 6 on the BUTV website as well as on the station’s Youtube page. 

BUNS election stories can be found on BUNS website. 

The Daily Free Press election coverage can be found on its website, as well as in the print edition, available outside the FREEP offices at 708 Commonwealth Ave. on Friday, November 8. The print issue will also be distributed around the BU campus.

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