“Changing America: Summer Reporting Projects in Development”

News21, led by 12 of America's leading research universities, is a national initiative that seeks to advance the U.S. news business by helping revitalize schools of journalism. Among its projects is “Maryland: The New Voters,” which concentrates on demographic, attitudinal and political shifts that contributed to the election of the nation’s first African-American president. The project pays particular attention to Latinos’ emerging role in national and local politics, with an in-depth examination of new exit-polling data; identification of hotspots; dialogue with citizens.