College Times

Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: News

Media Credit: The Fresno Bee 2007

Their timing was impeccable. When Andrew Mangino, the student editor of the Yale Daily News, and Alexander Heffner, a high school student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., met while working on Sen. Hillary Clinton's re-election campaign in New York, they sowed the seeds of an idea that over time, could change the landscape of election coverage in the United States - an online newspaper staffed by students around the country putting a youthful spin on the 2008 presidential race.

Out of the mouths of babes (relatively speaking), would come comprehensive coverage, commentary, analysis and opinion about a groundbreaking election involving the most diverse field of candidates in American history.

Scoop08 (www.scoop08.com) was launched Nov. 4 and has more than 400 high school and university student contributors - editors and reporters - making it one of the biggest news gathering organizations of any kind. And although Mangino and Heffner worked for the Clinton Senate campaign, this is a bipartisan venture in which every political point of view is represented and minor party candidates get the kind of in-depth attention not afforded by traditional print and broadcast media.

In other words, this is not your father's newspaper.

"It's an incredible year to be doing this," says Heffner, 17, who, besides being co-founder of Scoop08, is general manager of the Phillips Academy radio station and a full-time student. "We've had waves of enthusiasm that have enabled us to connect to young people. We're talking new and fresh angles."

Heffner is speaking from New Hampshire, where he was on the air with his radio show for five hours during the Jan. 8 primary. He is just finishing a quick lunch and pauses to say hello to a passer-by.

Despite an exhausting primary day and night, Heffner says the experience is invigorating. He senses a growing level of enthusiasm among the young people volunteering for Scoop08, who have not yet become jaded by the political process.

"We can track the contributions coming in, and we're getting a lot of college and high school students and even some older people who are disillusioned," Heffner says.

So whether it is exploring the compatibility of democracy and Islam as one columnist did, or even examining how sports and politics can mix, the tone and approach of Scoop08 is a lot different from watching the political pundits on "Meet the Press."

Continued...

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