Winter 2001
Volume 3, Number 2
  


Public Broadcasting partnership educates voters

By Karen L. Timbath


During the 2000 election year, voter concerns in central Pennsylvania took center stage in “Your Voice, Your Choice” — a local extension of the PBS Democracy Project that teamed Penn State Public Broadcasting with the Centre Daily Times (CDT) newspaper to provide comprehensive election coverage based on a 30-county voter survey. The Democracy Project featured original programming for the 2000 election and was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“Your Voice, Your Choice” included live broadcasts on Penn State Public Broadcasting’s public TV and radio stations WPSX-TV and WPSU-FM, as well as related feature articles in the CDT and a comprehensive Web site with other related links.

The project provided issues-oriented election coverage and was organized to highlight issues important to voters residing in Penn State Public Broadcasting’s viewing area, said Marie Hornbein, WPSX-TV producer and director, and Cindi Deutschman, WPSU-FM producer and director.

Both Hornbein and Deutschman have been involved with this project since last spring, when PBS put out a call for proposals for innovative programming about the 2000 campaign and election season. After several brainstorming sessions, Hornbein, Deutschman and other Penn State Public Broadcasting staff came up with the idea of a voter survey and follow-up coverage. They also proposed a partnership with the local community newspaper to provide additional reporting and to support some of the direct costs.

“The CDT has been terrific throughout this campaign and has been an enormously important partner,” Hornbein said. “We’re hoping that if we get the template down, we will expand to include more partners in our viewing area.”

In July, the telephone survey developed by the Penn State Outreach Office of Marketing Research was conducted with 304 adults in 30 counties, and subsequent analysis revealed the top concerns of these voters, in the order of their importance: education, taxes, health care and jobs and unemployment. Crime was another top concern of voters, according to Hornbein.

The Penn State Public Broadcasting/Centre Daily Times partnership followed up with election coverage from the beginning of October through Election Day, with each week focusing on a single topic important to the region’s voters. The partners worked together to produce in-depth articles, radio shows and television specials.

For example, when the partners examined why people vote or don’t vote, the Centre Daily Times published an article in its Sunday edition, WPSU-FM broadcast an hour-long call-in radio program hosted by Deutschman on Tuesday, and WPSX-TV broadcast a half-hour program hosted by Katie O’Toole followed by an hour-long online discussion on Thursday — all on the same topic.

Deutschman said “Your Voice, Your Choice” was a valuable project because of its focus on voter issues and multimedia approach.

“Election coverage is typically horse-race journalism, whereas our project was organized to highlight the issues folks say are important to them,” she added. “If we had simply gone by our own news judgment, we would have chosen some of the same topics, but not all of them. So this was significant.”

During the live broadcasts, Penn State faculty members joined area election officials, school administrators, CDT reporters and others as experts.

According to one of these guests, Dr. Eric Plutzer, associate professor of political science and sociology at Penn State, programs like “Your Voice, Your Choice” can help citizens learn more about the candidates, the issues and the parties.

“The project’s broadcast components continued PBS’ tradition of providing high-quality, in-depth programs on public affairs and elections,” Plutzer said. “Millions of people see these shows, and they are often used by educators to show in classrooms.”

Deutschman also added that the project’s multimedia aspect ensured that information about the campaign reached more people.

“If you wanted information on candidates, you could get it on our Web site,” she noted. “If you wanted a chance to talk about charter schools, you could do it on the radio. If you wanted a Centre County focus, you could find it in the CDT. And the TV shows were an excellent way to be informed.”

An outreach program of Penn State Public Broadcasting

The “Your Voice, Your Choice” PBS Democracy Project teamed Penn State Public Broadcasting with the Centre Daily Times newspaper for a series of public programs about the 2000 election. The Nov. 7 “It’s Election Day. Get Out and Vote!” radio program, broadcast live on WPSU-FM, brought together, from left, Marc Peterman, a Penn State graduate student in kinesiology; Erin Collins, a Penn State senior who completed an internship on Capitol Hill; Eileen Akin, assistant producer, “Your Voice, Your Choice”; and Cindi Deutschman, WPSU-FM producer, director and host for the “Your Voice, Your Choice” series. Also participating in the program were Adam Risinger, a Kane (Pa.) Area High School student, and Dr. Robert O’Connor, associate professor of political science at Penn State.
  

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