A common observation on college campuses today is "students do not look up when walking on campus." It is often thought that such attachment to communication devices demonstrates a lack of connection to the "real world." This perspective exemplifies the need for faculty to connect with the "digital generation" and do so on students' terms. The semester-length activity described in this article offers one way such a connection can be made. In conjunction with the American Democracy Project (ADP, n.d.), this activity was designed as a collaborative classroom experience between two classes to introduce and discuss literature focusing on both political communication and public opinion, host a DebateWatch (established in 1992 to bring communities together to discuss the Presidential campaigns and gain insight into how audiences reacted to the televised debates) event on campus with a real-time social media component, and engage members of the university and surrounding community in the political process.