Barack Obama v Mitt Romney -- an insider's look at the preparations for the big debate at Hofstra

World descends on Long Island campus for the key moment of the election

Wooden platforms for TV reporters have sprung up outside the Mack Complex where the networks are housed in mini-tents underneath an enormous frame of floodlights. The CNN Election Express bus is parked in what used to be a student parking lot and there are dozens of TV trucks and mobile generators packed in beside it.

I manage Long Island Report, which is the student news site at Hofstra, and we soon realized we couldn’t compete with this kind of media firepower. We’re going to spend the day aggregating social media and creating Storifies from tweets, pictures, and video submitted by students via Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter.

It is all about social media reporting and high-stakes political theater.

Wouldn’t miss it for the world!

Irish-born Kelly Fincham is an assistant professor of journalism at Hofstra University.

Read more about on Election 2012 here

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