The University of Mary Washington will host the C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus, Thursday, Sept. 27, on the Fredericksburg campus. The stop is part of a four-day tour to five Virginia universities and colleges to speak to students and community members regarding their thoughts about campaign issues. The bus will be located beside Lee Hall from 8:30 a.m. until noon.
Political analyst Stephen Farnsworth will be a guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal segment from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. Farnsworth, who is a UMW political science professor and director of the University’s Center for Media and Leadership Studies, is an expert on the 2012 presidential election cycle as well as Virginia government and politics. He is the author or co-author of four books, including “The Nightly News Nightmare: Media Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2008,” “Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves,” “The Mediated Presidency: Television News and Presidential Governance” and “Political Support in a Frustrated America.”
From 10:15 to 11:45 a.m., C-SPAN will hold tours aboard the Campaign 2012 Bus. Visitors will learn via HD TVs, touch screen computers, laptops and mobile devices about the network’s Campaign 2012 website, including video of candidates and campaign events, information on key state races, the electoral college and ways to follow the social media related to the campaign. The tour also will include information about C-SPAN’s public affairs event coverage; web offerings, including archived video going back to 1987 through C-SPAN’s Video Library and Congressional Chronicle; and the numerous ways to connect with the network through social media.
C-SPAN representatives also will encourage students and members of the community to share their thoughts about the presidential campaign. Participants will be asked to comment on the presidential candidates and the issues most important to them in this election cycle. Their responses — captured in 15-second videos via Smartphone and shared instantly — will be uploaded onto various C-SPAN social media platforms, including C-SPAN’s own Tout page (http://www.tout.com/cspanbus). Responses in this week-long election special also will be highlighted on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. The bus tour is open to the public at no charge. Public parking is in designated “visitor” parking spaces on Double Drive and on the top deck of the UMW Parking Deck accessed from U.S. 1.
More information about the bus tour is available at www.c-span.org/bus or by contacting Jennifer Curran, C-SPAN marketing representative, at (202) 309-3360.
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