CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER SUE DAVIS
By Kelly Bailiff

Journalists sometimes find it hard to be objective when it comes to their articles, but one journalist who believes people overestimate the bias of journalism is Roll Call reporter Susan Davis.

Davis, who spoke Monday at Georgetown University, believes it’s really easy to keep your opinion out of the story. Although, she works as a congressional reporter, she has no problem writing her articles without including her political stance or personal opinions.

“The readers don’t really care what the reporters think, it’s the facts that people are interested in,” said Davis.

Davis appeared as a guest speaker at Georgetown University’s Journalism Summer Workshop where she told the young adults of her job as a reporter and her further aspirations in journalism.

Davis hopes to one day work for a magazine or a daily national newspaper.

No matter where her career takes her, Davis said she cannot imagine anything else that she would like to be doing besides journalism.

Davis started her career after she received an internship at People Magazine. She had already majored in American History but seemed to be more fascinated by journalism.

“I don’t want to sit in a desk all day and as a journalist, I don’t,” said Davis.

After her internship, she worked for the Washingtonian magazine. Later, she began working on the “Almanac of American Politics”. This experience helped spark her interest in politics. She went to work for Congress Daily where she was a reporter for three years. Almost a year ago, Davis decided to transfer to Roll Call newspaper where she currently has a position as a political reporter.

“Policy reporting is more about the whats and the wheres,” said Davis, “Political reporting is about the whys.”

HIGH HOPES FOR YOUNG VOTER TURNOUT
By: Kelly Bailiff

Millions of teenagers rushed out to purchase the seventh book of the best-selling series, Harry Potter, but will they do the same to vote?

According to the Youth Vote Coalition, 18-30 year olds make up 24% of total eligible voters.

“I feel our country needs more people involved no matter what their political standpoint is,” said Mary McClelland from Young Voter Strategies. “If you have opinions, you should let them be known.”

Although the election is more than a year away, it is continuously becoming a topic discussed all over the media. Since the election has a very diverse range of candidates, the outcome of the election appears impossible to predict. The candidates are already campaigning and trying to earn citizens’ votes.

In 1972 when 18 year olds finally got the right to vote, 52 percent voted in the election. The number of 18-29 year olds who participate in the voting process decreased in the following decades until 2004. In that election, the voter turnout of 18-29 year olds was 49 percent, about a four percent increase compared to the 2000 presidential election. This year the candidates, as well as organizations like Young Voter Strategies, have high hopes for the amount of young voters to escalate in the 2008 election.

“Voting is a habit, if you don’t vote when you’re young the chance of you voting when you’re older is slim,” said McClelland.

McClelland and her colleagues are trying to create new ideas that will sway young people to vote. In the past, they launched a direct mail program that sent a voter’s registration form to someone for an eighteenth birthday. After the 2008 election, Young Voter Strategies plans to work on a program that will allow people to register to vote online to make it more convenient.

“Teenagers have a role politically as much as they make it. If a teenager wants to go talk to governors, senators, congressmen, then they have a big power in politics. But if they decide to do nothing, then they’ll never get heard,” said Michael Gadzik, 16, from Warren, Michigan.

“If you think the government is stupid than change it,” said Elena Messesova, 18, from Warren, Michigan. “Teens must realize, they have to change what they don’t like. It’s like putting on an outfit that makes you frown in the mirror, you change it.”

Most teenagers don’t seem to realize how much of a difference their votes can make, according to some of those interviewed in an informal survey by Georgetown University journalism students.

“I don't think our votes really count for anything in our government,” said Kasey Michelchuck, 16, from Sterling Heights, MI.

Although some teenagers such as Kasey believe their votes don’t really count in the overall outcome, Mary McClelland of Young Voter Strategies has a different view.

“Most teenagers don’t realize what a massive impact they can make on local votes,” said McClelland. “Teenagers don’t realize how big their generation is and how much of a difference they could make by voting in the 2008 election.”

In the informal survey conducted by the Georgetown University Summer Journalism Workshop, high school students asked a series of questions pertaining to the 2008 election. Sixteen-year-old Alexandra Williams from Cold Spring Harbor, NY, expressed her belief that teenagers should recognize the amount of power they are being given.

“Since the majority of our country did a poor job of making the logical decision in voting in the past two elections, I feel it is necessary for me and other teens to take advantage of the fact that we now officially have an influence on who leads our country,” said Williams.

Claire Goscicki, 16, from Sterling Heights, MI, agreed with Williams.

“I think that votes from the 18-24 age group will make a larger impact on the outcome of the election than in the past. Many young people have opinions on our troops being stationed in the Middle East, whether their opinion is toward support of the war, criticism of the war, criticism of a draft, or something else concerning the issue,” said Goscicki.

“Our next leader will be placed in a position to finish what President Bush Jr. started so it is crucial for our generation to step up and persuade our leaders to make choices reflecting the views of everyday citizens,” said Goscicki.

As more teenagers show interest in the 2008 election, the candidates are beginning to realize how much the young population has been increasing and that teens are intrigued by the possibility of America having the first female or African American president.

“Barack Obama is an interesting candidate because with many young people learning about politics in high school and college and being encouraged to vote in future elections, the need for diversity in the government is growing and is a more wildly accepted proposition compared to white males being the majority leader in government institutions years ago,” said Gosckici.

Susan Davis, a congressional reporter from Roll Call newspaper, believes candidates have increased their ways of communication with young people.

“Now all the candidates make efforts to connect with the younger voters through You Tube and Facebook,” said Davis.

Despite the candidates’ copious amount of effort, 52 percent of those surveyed by the Georgetown students don’t believe politics are a topic of importance to teenagers.

“What teenagers need to be enticed to vote are very simple terms followed by very immediate action. Kind of like training a dog. Politicians have to show very clearly what the reward is for voting and then quickly make good on that reward. If that were the case, voting rates would sky rocket,” said Evan McClain, 17, from Warren, MI.

Some young adults believe teenagers take the whole voting process for granted.

“Not only does voting create and uphold democracy, it’s the very symbol of the entire process. The reason people take voting for granted is because we have it. If we didn’t, we’d be complaining about not having a say,” said Messesova. “I want to know that in some small way shape or form, I put in my opinion.”

The Young Voter Strategies goal for 2008 is to surpass the high percentage of young voters in the 1972 election. Alexander Ryder, 17, from Warren, MI seems to have a reasonable solution.

“Maybe if you showed teenagers how many people over the years died so that they could have that one right to vote they would be more likely to vote,” said Ryder.