Media Forum

A panel of three spoke about politics and media during the Media Forum on Thursday, Mar. 8, 2012.  Areas of interest covered were New Media, Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Super Pac money, political ads and Americans Elect.

Robert Sahl, insturctor of Political Science at OSU was the first to speak, he shared his views about how most Americans believe the U.S. has the best political science in the world until it effects them directly.  We all want different and better third party candidates.  "We want our government to work again," said Sahl. 

Sahl explained the effects of how during every campaign the states are divided into three groups; our states, which we should be able to win; their states, which we most likely cannot win; our targets, which have a chance to win with effort and commitment.  However, the first two groups are ignored.

The second panelist to speak was Rob Priewe, English and Writing instructor at LBCC.  Priewe is a huge fan of the First Amendment and emphasized how important it is to protect it.  Social media and Borack Obama was covered, explaining how Obama used social media to help win the election.  Obama raised $50 million through social media. "As a media guy, I love it," said Priewe.  Priewe's main concern is transparency, where is the money coming from and where is it going?  Media is funded by advertising, which brings us back to the First Amendment, which was Priewe's initial point.

Finally, Hasso Hering, executive editor at the Albany Democrat-Herald shared his views.  "Most people really don't care about politics and neither do I," said Hering.  Claiming most likely to be one of the only people to feel this way, he discourages voting.  A majority of voters are persuaded by commercials which aren't true, another portion read stories and the rest feel obligation to vote even though they know nothing about what is going on.  Hering feels we gain nothing from uninformed voters and are lucky to have the freedom whether or not to vote.  In some countries there are penalties for not voting, it's mandatory.

A very informative forum about social media and it's impact, especially when it comes to campaigning, and politics in general.