Early last semester, I was assigned to write a report on the frontrunners for the 2008 election and how they were campaigning to young voters. I was dismayed when a professor I interviewed at American University informed me that she had learned something disturbing while researching for one of her classes. She had been told by one of the top candidates' campaign representatives that they put little effort and funds into encouraging the youth vote because they simply did not show up at the polls. I was upset to hear this, mainly because I didn't think that my age group was that ignorant. I had this immediate urgency to go into defense mode, thinking to myself, "We do care. We want change. We will show up."
Then it happened. A couple days ago, my friends and I entered into a spontaneous conversation about the candidates and one of my friends piped up with, "I don't think I know any of the Republicans that are running." I found that very hard to believe, considering that we attend college in a state whose last governor is one such contender. Another friend was then directed to a local news website that had a poll which was supposed to tell you, based on a series of questions about your personal views, who it is she should vote for. Well, let's just say she had never even heard of the man that the site regurgitated for her. She had hoped it would spit out Barack Obama.
This whole ordeal led us into a discussion about what the candidates' statistics include--who each is, what is important about their background, what they stand for. Considering the amount of information available on the web, it took the girls longer than it should have to find a site that spelled out all that information in the neat and compact format they were looking for...and the site they chose was Wikipedia. I'm not sure why us college kids hold Wikipedia to the same standards as Britannica, but, nevertheless, we seem to. For this reason, I decided to post a link to a news website that has exactly what my friends and I'm sure many other college students want that is far more reliable than our beloved Wikipedia.
So, if there's anyone out there who recognizes such a plight, go here. It's a local news station for our area, but it's a great collection of information!
Then it happened. A couple days ago, my friends and I entered into a spontaneous conversation about the candidates and one of my friends piped up with, "I don't think I know any of the Republicans that are running." I found that very hard to believe, considering that we attend college in a state whose last governor is one such contender. Another friend was then directed to a local news website that had a poll which was supposed to tell you, based on a series of questions about your personal views, who it is she should vote for. Well, let's just say she had never even heard of the man that the site regurgitated for her. She had hoped it would spit out Barack Obama.
This whole ordeal led us into a discussion about what the candidates' statistics include--who each is, what is important about their background, what they stand for. Considering the amount of information available on the web, it took the girls longer than it should have to find a site that spelled out all that information in the neat and compact format they were looking for...and the site they chose was Wikipedia. I'm not sure why us college kids hold Wikipedia to the same standards as Britannica, but, nevertheless, we seem to. For this reason, I decided to post a link to a news website that has exactly what my friends and I'm sure many other college students want that is far more reliable than our beloved Wikipedia.
So, if there's anyone out there who recognizes such a plight, go here. It's a local news station for our area, but it's a great collection of information!
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