Still the Main Source Response

Since I work at a small local television station, WVUA-TV, it is really unsurprising to me that local television is so important to people in their community. It is true that people who do not follow much national and international news are more concerned with the road closings and city board meeting agenda than the latest on Britney Spears or the 2008 election. Local television is also very important because my station is the only television source for West Alabama news. If you want to know what President Bush has planned for the day or the latest death toll in Iraq you can turn on CNN for five seconds to find out. However, if you want to sit down for 30 minutes to an hour to hear about what’s going on in your community, local news, weather and sports, tune in to your local television station.

The Voting & Political Views of Students

College students today are usually concerned with typical things for their age and status. These are generally things such as grades and parties, jobs and money. However, are college students concerned with the world around them? Politics in particular, since we have reached another election year. Since the right to vote arrived with their eighteenth birthday, are students taking the opportunity to make sure they're registered, listening to the candidate’s issues, and most importantly, will they actually go out and vote on Tuesday, November 4?

Student’s ideas and beliefs concerning politics often begin in the most obvious of places, their home. As you grow older, you begin to understand how your parents view the world, what they think is right and wrong, and even what political party they're affiliated with. “My parents are fairly conservative, but I’ve always been more of a liberal thinker,” said Blake Brunson, a senior majoring in Art History. Brunson also added that although she was raised in a Southern Baptist household, she had more secular views of religion that influenced her political views, even though she claims herself to not be affiliated with any political party. However, she plans to vote for Clinton should she get the democratic nomination.

And if you do adopt your parents political views while still at home, is it possible for your views to change once you go away to college? “I was raised by conservative to moderate parents, but when I came to college, I began to lean a little more toward the left,” said Sarah Meginniss, a senior majoring in English. Some people consider educated people to be more liberal than conservative, but Meginniss says she isn’t really buying into that, saying that she has always respected her parent’s views, and that they sometimes even influence the way she chooses to vote. Meginnis plans to vote for Obama in the upcoming election.

For many students, November will be the first time they vote. This election has captured the interest of many young people, and for many reasons. “I really took an interest to the elections this year, and I think it’s because the candidates are actually taking the time to listen to what young people have to say, I especially liked the YouTube debates,” said Richard Caples, a senior majoring in Finance. Caples says that reaching out to young people in a way that will spark their interest will make young people more likely to go out and vote for a particular candidate.

The Alabama primary was held February 5, on Super Tuesday. Some students say that they are overall confused about the point of the primaries, so they didn’t bother going out to vote. “I’m going to vote in November, but I don’t understand why my vote matters in the primary anyways, so I just decided to wait until the actual election,” said Sarah Halliday, a senior majoring in Restaurant and Hospitality Management. Halliday says that she plans to vote for John McCain, the Republican nominee.

Another issue that arises from Super Tuesday is if the original candidate you support chooses to stay in the race or not. “I had supported Mike Huckabee from the very beginning, but since he dropped out, I’m backing McCain in November,” said Kevin McAbee, a senior majoring in Marketing. McAbee says that changing candidates wasn’t that difficult since he knew he would support the Republican nominee no matter what.

No matter what student’s political upbringing, their political party affiliation today or whether or not they voted in the primary, students will have the option that comes only once every four years of fulfilling their civic duty at the polls this November.

Sidebar Poll

To understand differences females and males may have over politics, I conducted a poll, see king the answers of 50 females as well as 50 males to answer seven questions concerning their political views.

1. Do you vote the same party affiliation as your parents?

Females...Yes- 32...No- 18

Males...Yes- 22...No- 28


2. Do your parents influence the way you vote in any way?

Females...Yes- 21...No- 29

Males...Yes- 13...No- 37


3. Have your political views changed since you moved to college?

Females...Yes- 21...No- 29

Males...Yes- 14...No- 36


4. Did you vote in the primary?

Females...Yes- 24...No- 26

Males...Yes- 18...No- 32


5. Do you still support the same candidate that you did during the primary?

Females...Yes- 21...No- 29

Males...Yes- 37...No- 13


6. Do you plan on voting in November?

Females...Yes- 44...No- 6

Males...Yes- 49...No- 1


7. Do you follow election coverage or are you tired of hearing about it?

Females...Yes- 9...No- 41

Males...Yes- 15...No- 35

Related Links

Young Voters Resources for young voters including surveys and coalition/organization info for young people
Rock the Vote A non-profit, non-partisan organization created to increase young voter turnout by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities
Voter Registration Learn about registering to vote in Alabama
Voting 101 Frequently asked questions for new voters
YouTube Easily search for debate clips, campaign ads and even candidate spoofs
Facebook Join millions of other young people in supporting your presidential candidate pick through networking
Hillary Clinton Learn more about Clinton's background, qualifications and stances on tough issues
John McCain Learn more about McCain's background, qualifications and stances on tough issues
Barack Obama Learn more about Obama's background, qualifications and stances on tough issues
Democrats Explore the democratic party through party leadership and issues, plus find ways you can offer your support
Republicans Explore the republican party through party leadership and GOP issues, plus find ways you can offer your support
Campus Compact An initiative to encourage higher education instutitions to help educate and empower students and to make the process of staying engaged easier throughout election season.

Student Political Views (Multimedia Elements)

My iMovie on student political views, questions two female UA students about their parent's political views versus their own, and their political views since coming to college.

Arizona: Super Tuesday

The three media markets in Arizona I choose to review for their Super Tuesday coverage are Phoenix, Tucson, and Mesa, which is a fast-growing suburb of Phoenix. In Phoenix, I focused on a paper called the Arizona Business Gazette and their ABC affiliate, KNXV-TV, or ABC15 Phoenix. The Tucson newspaper I choose was the Arizona Daily Star, and a CBS television affiliate, KOLD News 13. For Mesa, I looked at the East Valley Tribune, and the local FOX affiliate, FOX10, or MyFoxPhoenix. I had great difficulty finding original content from the sites I visited concerning Super Tuesday voting in Arizona. The stories I found were related to last-minute work bring done by locals for the candidate's campaigns, or talking about 'watch parties' that took place. The content I found on the sites related to the television stations was written fairly well for the web. The long-form writing I saw was from the newspaper's sites, and I'm sure those were stories that had been written for print, and included no local updates of any sort. The Fox10 site best exemplified multimedia, they had video coverage of John McCain's rounds of Arizona on Super Tuesday, as well as photos and interesting graphics. The site that i found best exemplified interactivity was that of the East Valley Tribune. They had reporter blogs and message boards, and It seemed that there was much buzz concerning local political opinion. The stories on the television affiliate sites were organized for the scanner, with headlines and bold writing, and the newspaper sites included more in-depth coverage and localized opinions. In addition, not only did the web summaries duplicate the lead, they were the lead! While using search tools, a short headline would pop up along with the first few lines of the story. Super Tuesday coverage in Arizona was typical of that in other states, plenty of AP reports, but also a few strong local stories, especially since a Republican front-runner, John McCain is from Arizona.

Wild Winter Weather

I may work there, but I thought WVUA-TV did an excellent job covering the winter weather that occurred this past weekend. The weather team was working around the clock to make sure their West Alabama viewers got complete coverage and constant updates. Besides breaking in to regularly scheduled broadcasting throughout the weekend, their website was constantly being updated to bring everyone the latest in weather. You could get updates from the weather blog, and there were pictures posted as they were sent in by viewers. You could also check out the interactive radar, current conditions and future forecast. You could sign up for updates via e-mail and view webcasts, which were several minutes long and reflected the latest coverage. The written reports on the website were non-speculative, and reflected hard work by the weather team. The station's multimedia weather-watching choices were EXCELLENT! The station offered many options to keep viewers updated so they could stay safe and prepare accordingly. Nice Work WVUA-TV!!!