Of the 135 participants, 24 students will contribute blogs, while the remaining students engage in other activities.

For many students, the experience will be their first time appearing in a professional publication, which has the bloggers nervous and anxious.

“I just like being able to get my thoughts out there,” said Skye McDonald, a journalism and comparative cultures and politics freshman and first-time blogger. “I’m a little bit afraid of the criticism, but I’m more excited.”

Journalism professor Bonnie Bucqueroux, a regular blogger for The Detroit News, spearheaded the project along with MSU graduate student Robin Blom.

The students, most of whom are freshmen and sophomores, are enrolled in Bucqueroux’s Introduction to Mass Media class.

The students divided into teams, such as fact checking, creating poll questions for participants to answer with interactive clickers and calculating face time for candidates, for the debate.

Aside from having various journalism interests, Bucqueroux said the students also represent a variety of demographics.

“I think we have a pretty nice, diverse group of students geographically, we have some females, we have all spectrums on the political scale,” Bucqueroux said.

While blogging is a new facet to journalism, Bucqueroux said it can often offer more insight than traditional media.

“Journalists try so hard to remain objective,” Bucqueroux said. “Bloggers, on the other hand, wear their opinions on their sleeves.

“What I like about blogging is instead of having one person’s take on it, you can read a variety of different opinions.”

Blogger contributions have garnered national political attention in recent years.

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean caught flak from bloggers for his signature scream and wanting to be the candidate for “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.”

Republican presidential hopeful George Allen’s campaign also was cut short when a video surfaced of Allen uttering a racial slur during a speech.

Despite bloggers’ impact, Bucqueroux acknowledges the student bloggers could be a risky venture for The Detroit News, given the emphasis placed on facts in journalism.

But with print media in an overall decline, Bucqueroux commended The Detroit News for recognizing that using young journalists could lure a young audience.

“Obviously, it’s vital to attract young readers because they are the future of reading your product,” said Jane Briggs-Bunting, the School of Journalism director and President of The State News Board of Directors.

“Getting students engaged in news is important. Blogging is not in traditional news format, so hopefully it will engage students.”