REPORTERS NEED DETERMINATION
By Harry Lee

Roll Call reporter Susan Davis today told aspiring journalists at Georgetown University that covering Congress requires devotion and determination. Although she mentioned the privileges as well as enjoyment she experiences as a political journalist, she explicitly detailed the responsibility of covering stories daily. ?

"Sometimes I even missed my birthday," said Davis, 27, who covers the House.

She explained that her daily duties often had to interfere with personal life, and once this included her birthday.

As students asked questions about her job as well as the commitment, Davis began to give advice to the newcomers to the field of journalism. For beginning reporters, she advised the students to read a lot.

"No matter what you do as a journalist, you have to spend at least an hour of the day reading the competitor's work," Davis added. She explained that journalism is certainly not without competition, and that there is always room to improve. And, according to Davis, the improvement comes from the reading.

The determination as a reporter seemed like something that Davis has thoroughly experienced. The 27-year-old journalist talked about the times she was rejected by people she tried to interview. She told that class about the case where a congressman decided to cut contact with Roll Call after the newspaper criticized him. "But we called his office over and over again, just in case," Davis said.

Davis also talked about the good things about being a journalist .

"The front-row seats are reserved for you in exchange for your devotion," she said of the privilege of covering Congress. "Being at the front row at the President's State of the Union is really special."

Following the advice and the determination required, Davis talked willingly about the advantages of being a journalist covering the House.

HOW MUCH ATTENTION DO TEENS DESERVE?
By Harry Lee

Presidential candidates are paying more attention to teen voters in the 2008 elections. Responses show an increase in political vigilance in the millennial generation. Experts, however, claim that it's too soon to conclude that their efforts will overcome the young generation's historically low voting turnout.

Ever since suffrage was given to 18-year-olds in 1972 by the 26th Amendment, the youth voter turnout has not been particularly impressive. The youth voting rate of 52 percent in 1972 has never been broken, and the teen turnout at polls has been declining in the years following.

Yet experts such as Mary McClelland, a national field director for Young Voter Strategies (www.youngvoterstrategies.org), have hopes for the youth voters. She said that the young voting rate has seen increases in the last two elections; for example increasing by 11 percentage points in 2004. However, the increase does not show the potential voting power of the Millennial Generation, according to McClelland. She said those born between 1977 and 1997 will make up one third of the electorate by the year 2015.

"If we don't get our voting rates up, we will be losing a lot of power and chances to change the way this country is run, from whatever way your political persuasion is," McClelland said.

McClelland believed that the problem with low participation would not be resolved just over time. "If you don't vote when you're young, you won't when you're old," McClelland explained, stressing the dangers of teens not becoming politically involved at an early age. Her organization, based at George Washington University, seeks to get teens to vote.

An informal survey of teens conducted by the students of the Georgetown University Journalism Workshop found that many teens know that their generation is not voting. When asked if the presidential candidates pay enough attention to teen voters, Alysa Hannon, a sophomore at Georgetown University, said, "Probably not, because teens don't make up enough of the voting population. Campaigns probably don't want to focus on an age group who probably won't turn out in voting as much as other age groups."

However, as more information about international issues is becoming accessible to the younger age group, the desire for the millennial generation to participate in politics has increased. Experts suggest that the war in Iraq and world terrorism have awakened teens politically and may get their voting rate in the 2008 election to resemble that of 1972. A clear majority of about 60 percent of the participants in the Georgetown survey responded that the war in Iraq would most likely influence their vote.

McClelland gave several examples of youth voting power in 2006. Joe Courtney of Connecticut running for Congress won dramatically when he captured most of the teen votes. Concentrating his campaigns on the youth votes, he acknowledges his success with young voters as a major factor behind his triumph.

In Minnesota, student activists created a "debt rock" as a target point for candidates focused on winning youth votes. The campaigns used the symbol of college students getting crushed by debt to get their attention. By pinpointing the issue that troubled students the most, candidates succeeded in bringing more youths to the polls.

The 2008 candidates are now focusing a lot more on young voters because of the increasing awareness of their electoral power. Many are using the web as a mode of gaining publicity. According a recent story in the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, "John McCain has 36,000 friends on www.myspace.com. On Hillary Clinton's page, you can learn that ‘chocolate’ is her worst habit. And Mitt Romney listens to Roy Orbison, according to his www.facebook.com profile."

Capitalizing on the increased young voter turnout in the 2004 election, Young Voter Strategies has experimented with many methods to test which strategy would work best. Rock the Vote, another youth voting organization, offers an online registration site to make it easier for teens to register. Strategists found that the accessibility as well as the convenience of voting influenced whether teens voted. Experts agree that the complexity of the current system could be one reason why teens are hesitating to vote.

Young Voter Strategies, with field experiments with Yale University, concluded that peer-to-peer effort works the best. The close conversation from one person to another encouraging voting has raised the voting percentage at Yale by as much as 11%. McClelland said youth organizers in Connecticut knocked on thousands of doors to bring out young voters for Courtney.

Teens questioned are positive about the efforts being taken to encourage them to vote. The Georgetown survey found that 72% of the interviewed teens were going to vote in 2008.

Asked why she plans to vote, Danielle Eustice a 20-year-old student from New Jersey replied, "I think it is most important to vote. You can't really complain about what's going on in the country if you don't vote."

"It's a great opportunity to have your voice heard, especially if you're a teen. I'll be exactly 18 at the time so I'll be able to represent part of the young population," said Abby Boswell of Miami.

Tasneem Campost, 17, agrees that "it's really important to vote…too many people feel that their vote doesn't count, but if everyone thinks that, then nothing will happen for the better or for the worst."

Determined to make a change and speak out their opinions by voting, many students did not hesitate to voice their views on the issues most important to them, what they value and what changes they would like to see. Teens in the Georgetown survey almost unanimously agreed that the war in Iraq is the most important issue. Research at Harvard University also suggests that most students (69%) disapprove of the Bush administration's policy.

Mary McClelland told students at Georgetown University she hopes these issues will get young people to the polls in 2008. "Voting is a habit. You need to start earlier to get voting to be one. If you get people to vote for the first few cycles, they will vote for life."

Not everyone thinks teens will respond. When asked about the youth vote, veteran political journalist Cokie Roberts recently said: "Oh they don't matter…they don't vote."

The validity of her statement will be tested in the 2008 elections as the millennial generation strives to voice their opinions and elect a president that agrees with them.

Source Page:
Young Voter Strategies

Harvard University Insitute of Politics research on teen voters (posted by YVS)

St.Petersburg Times Article