
SUNY Old Westbury is constantly looking for ways to give students applied, real-world experience to spark their interest and development.
That was very evident on Election Day 2024, as students engaged in with OWWR-Old Westbury Web Radio engaged as part of an unprecedented initiative to bring together students across the country and the world to report on the 2024 presidential election through Student News Live — a global coalition of high school and college journalism programs that covered the election in a 24-hour online broadcast simulcast by iHeartRadio and PBS News Student Reporting Labs.
Student News Live’s 24 hours of continuous coverage started at noon on Election Day, November 5, 2024, and SUNY Old Westbury took center stage between 4-4:30 p.m., with a live broadcast from the studios of OWWR on the second floor of the campus' Student Union. The broadcast included a discussion among Dr. Thomas DelGiudice, associate professor of Politics Economics and Law; Dr. Martha Livingston, professor of Public Health, Gabrielle Gambuzza, OWWR production director, Vincent Arroyo, executive editor of the campus' student newspaper, The Catalyst, and Patrec-Alexander Jones-Brown, OWWR program director.
On the morning of November 6, 2024, from 8-9 a.m., Senior Media and Communications major Timothy Coventry was featured on the Student News Live broadcast breaking down the national, state and local races.
The SUNY Old Westbury segments, along with the entire 24-hour broadcast, aired on StudentNewsLive.com, as well as the YouTube channels for PBS News Student Reporting Labs, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and OWWR. The audio from the feed aired on the iHeartRadio app and iHeart.com.
“Journalists of all ages deserve a chance to cover the presidential race,” said Nicholas Hirshon, a journalism professor at William Paterson University and co-director of Student News Live alongside College Radio Foundation founder Rob Quicke. “We hope Student News Live can help young reporters across the country jumpstart their careers.”
Student News Live has also received support from NBCU Academy, which is training participating students and providing them with a resource toolkit on political and election coverage.
OWWR Old Westbury Web Radio is a component of a multifaceted student media and field experience program managed by the University's Media and Communications program.