Spring Break
Speakers discuss election and role of 'new media'
Janhavi Purohit
Issue date: 10/31/08 Section: News
The Great Works Symposium hosted a "Media and the Elections" event Oct. 23 with speakers Monica Malpass of the Channel 6 Action News, Dave Heller from WHYY radio, bloggers Kyle Kutuchief from Ohio and Phil Martin from Texas and moderator Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at Penn.
The event was held as part of a lecture for a class on the election but was open for the public, according to Scott Knowles, assistant professor of history and politics.
"The first half of the course, before the election, was meant to give students background they needed to understand not just how all elections played out, but how this particular election might play out," Knowles said. "When it came to the media, it was such a huge topic. Changes in media are unfolding in real time, and the effect of the 'new media' has yet to be determined, and I think this election will determine that."
Knowles said that he chose the panelists based on their relevance and perspective on the topic of media and its role in elections.
"We wanted to have people who could discuss it in one sense from a detached way - that's why I chose the moderator I did, but also wanted real practitioners of the media. We wanted bloggers who came from different types of blogs," Knowles said. "I particularly wanted bloggers who weren't from the Northeast, who were from different states, which is why we got Ohio and Texas. They're far enough away that they could bring different perspective to the table."
Knowles added that the result of the discussion was a conversation that demonstrated different parts of the media and the competition between them in a non-hostile way.
Carpini said the lecture addressed an important topic - the 'new media,' mainly web sites, and the role it plays in the election today.
"The role of the media in theory, and partly in practice, is to inform voters so that if they decide to go to the voting booth on Election Day, they feel like they know what the major issues are and they know where the candidates and parties stand on them. In practice they do some of that, but obviously they also, consciously or not, can bias the way in which people think about it, because they can give more coverage to one candidate rather than another, can give better coverage to one candidate rather than another," Carpini said. "The hope is to inform voters in as honest and open a way as possible, the fear is that they can affect the outcome on unintended or intended ways that can lead people to vote for the candidate for the wrong reasons."
The event was held as part of a lecture for a class on the election but was open for the public, according to Scott Knowles, assistant professor of history and politics.
"The first half of the course, before the election, was meant to give students background they needed to understand not just how all elections played out, but how this particular election might play out," Knowles said. "When it came to the media, it was such a huge topic. Changes in media are unfolding in real time, and the effect of the 'new media' has yet to be determined, and I think this election will determine that."
Knowles said that he chose the panelists based on their relevance and perspective on the topic of media and its role in elections.
"We wanted to have people who could discuss it in one sense from a detached way - that's why I chose the moderator I did, but also wanted real practitioners of the media. We wanted bloggers who came from different types of blogs," Knowles said. "I particularly wanted bloggers who weren't from the Northeast, who were from different states, which is why we got Ohio and Texas. They're far enough away that they could bring different perspective to the table."
Knowles added that the result of the discussion was a conversation that demonstrated different parts of the media and the competition between them in a non-hostile way.
Carpini said the lecture addressed an important topic - the 'new media,' mainly web sites, and the role it plays in the election today.
"The role of the media in theory, and partly in practice, is to inform voters so that if they decide to go to the voting booth on Election Day, they feel like they know what the major issues are and they know where the candidates and parties stand on them. In practice they do some of that, but obviously they also, consciously or not, can bias the way in which people think about it, because they can give more coverage to one candidate rather than another, can give better coverage to one candidate rather than another," Carpini said. "The hope is to inform voters in as honest and open a way as possible, the fear is that they can affect the outcome on unintended or intended ways that can lead people to vote for the candidate for the wrong reasons."
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