by Farai Chideya

So, I'm in a basement a floor underneath Dan Rather, on the campus of the University of Southern California Annenberg. I'm not here FOR Dan Rather, and the odd thing is that he's broadcasting his high-definition television show, but you can't actually see it on the Web.

I could walk up a couple floors and peer down from the balcony, but that's not why I'm here. I'm teaching my first class ever — on multimedia journalism — and it's a real kick.

The Web game has changed a lot since I started a site (on the campaign trail no less) called PopandPolitics. The programs used to create Web pages have changed; the ease of using basic programs like Blogger have changed; and the complexity of options on the Web have changed. Teaching a class like this is an education for me as well as my students.

And so is learning about journalism and multimedia on an election night during one of the most highly contested and controversial elections of our lifetime.

In the past, I would have been on television analyzing the news. I miss the juice of that experience, but I also like not having to dress up and wear makeup. But back to the point.

I get to take a step back and look at how various news organizations are tracking politics on a night like this.

The Drudge Report, which broke the story about the blue dress, is still a text-based site that has been breaking early (and unconfirmed) election results.

If you go to a site like NPR's, you'll see constantly updated stories with links to audio (of course) plus text and other media.

If you go to The Washington Post, you'll see the folks there throwing up a lot of maps and graphics and charts, in addition to their other work.

If you go to CNN, you'll see plenty of streaming video.

Most news organizations have their specialties and on a night like this — mega mega primary night — you get to click around the Web and see what's what. In addition to every other aspect of what's unfolding tonight, being a part of online history is a kick.

Of course, on our bloggers roundtable we get to see people who are putting their own, opinionated stamp on politics ... and they'll be on with our analysts tomorrow once we see what proof is in this political pudding.