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Technological Innovations, but Few Diversity Surprises

The coverage of Election Night — the culmination of a two-year campaign marathon — will be marked in the broadcast and
Internet media by technological innovations, but few diversity surprises for those who have followed coverage during the
primary season and the presidential debates.

Some networks are responding to concerns about voter irregularities. CNN said it will assemble "go teams" of correspondents
and producers who will report on the irregularities as well as breaking election news. Throughout the day, CNN’s Ali Velshi
is to anchor reports on voting irregularities from the "go teams," and legal experts are to track and analyze such issues
across the country, a news release said. ABC and NBC also mentioned the voter-integrity issue in their announcements.

The racial dimension of the historic election, which could see the nation’s first African American president, is to be
acknowledged on Wednesday by National Public Radio’s midday newsmagazine "Day to Day," which plans to broadcast from the
heart of Los Angeles’ black community — whether Barack Obama wins or loses. "Host Alex Chadwick will spend the morning at a
coffee shop owned by Magic Johnson Enterprises in the Ladera Heights section of the city, speaking with African-American
leaders, thinkers and just folks grabbing a cup of coffee," NPR said. 

NPR’s "News & Notes" begins a month-long series on race in America on Thursday. "’News & Notes’ and host Farai Chideya plan
to examine issues of race that have emerged from this election: issues of privilege, perceptions and identity, and the lines
– visible and invisible – between the races that still exist. The first installment in this series examines how the issue of
race played into the race for the White House," according to the network.

With a nod to the unprecedented worldwide attention generated by the election, NPR will also present "Talk of the World"  the on Thursday, an international call-in special hosted by
NPR’s Neal Conan that will be streamed live at www.NPR.org, with a panel of opinion leaders who will analyze how changes at
the White House will affect U.S. relations around the world.

On television, there will be those bells and whistles.

"Election night is like the Summer Olympics and Super Bowl for network news divisions, and each is carting out eye-popping
technical toys to draw viewers," Edward C. Baig and Jon Swartz wrote
for USA Today.

On CNN, for example, instead of the split screen or window TV viewers might typically see during live remote interviews, an
Obama spokesman or spokeswoman will be projected as a three-dimensional hologram, making it appear as if he or she is in the
Manhattan studio with anchor Wolf Blitzer. The network plans to conduct similar holographic interviews with representatives
from the John McCain campaign in Phoenix, the USA Today story said.

"’The real challenge this year is new stuff that will travel easily on multiplatforms,’ says Andrew Tyndall, publisher of
TyndallReport.com, which monitors television network news. ‘Not only must this look good on TV, but on portable devices like
cellphones.’"

"There are plenty of reasons for the gimmicks: This year’s race has been intensely followed, and is expected to draw tens of
millions of voters – and viewers – on Nov. 4. Significantly more people are expected to watch Tuesday night’s results than in
2004, when about 64 million viewed election-night results on network and cable TV, according to Nielsen."

Newspapers, too, are embracing the new technology.

"The Washington Post, along with a host of syndication partners such as The Dallas Morning News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Denver Post, will air six hours of live video election coverage," Abbey Klaassen reported
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132177
Monday in Advertising Age.

Among the Post journalists of color scheduled to appear are editorial writer Jonathan Capehart, associate editor Kevin
Merida and reporter Perry Bacon, Jim Brady, who directs the Post’s Web site, told Journal-isms. All have been covering the
campaign.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the influential House Energy
and Commerce Committee, sent a letter Thursday to the heads of seven
networks asking each to hold off declaring a winner while voting polls
are still open. Dingell said his concern was that a premature call
"could depress voter turnout."

According
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE49S1VO20081029?sp=true
to Reuters, "One important step taken by news organizations before the 2008 election was to upgrade the system used in exit
polls — the surveys of voters conducted just after they cast their ballots that are often used to ‘call’ a given state for a
particular candidate." Over-reliance on exit polls proved misleading in both 2000 and 2004, the story said.

"Should all signs on Tuesday point to an Obama landslide, news directors say they will have no choice but to report the
obvious.

"Still, they are sensitive to striking a balance that avoids stating election trends as foregone conclusions while people in
another part of the country are still voting."

Here is some of how each network is including journalists of color in its coverage:

 

In addition, "TV news organizations from around the globe will be covering the Obama-McCain showdown on Nov. 4 in ways they’ve never done before," as Richard Huff reported
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/10/29/2008-10-29_international_news_networks_pull_out_all-1.html
in the New York Daily News.

"For one night, television will turn this historic vote, which will set the tone for the country and the world for at least the next four years, into an international spectacle perhaps only rivaled by the turn of the millennium."

"The BBC and BBC America, for example, will be broadcasting to more than 200 countries – and calling on former ABC News fixture Ted Koppel to help guide the coverage.

"Offering an Arab perspective, Al Jazeera English will reach more than 50 million viewers with a 12-hour broadcast from Washington, D.C., with reporters stationed in several U.S. cities and more than a dozen countries. Even TV5Monde USA, a French pay-cable channel, will offer seven hours of live coverage from Manhattan."


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