C-SPAN partners with Tout to hear what North Carolina students have to say about the 2012 campaign season. Photo by Ben Haines
C-SPAN launched its Campaign 2012 Bus on a six-day tour of universities and towns in North Carolina on Thursday, May 3, beginning with stops at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Western Carolina University.
Leading up to the state presidential primary on Tuesday, May 8, the C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus is partnering with social media service Tout to encourage students and the public to share their thoughts about campaign issues online. Tout allows users to post 15-second videos directly from their smartphones.
“It’s our community outreach and education vehicle,” said Doug Hemmig, C-SPAN community relations representative. After visiting Asheville in the morning, the Campaign 2012 Bus parked on the WCU campus in lot 33 by the A.K. Hinds University Center, Coulter and Forsyth buildings from noon to 2:30 p.m.
Visitors aboard the air-conditioned bus had the opportunity to learn about C-SPAN’s Campaign 2012 programming and resources with interactive touch-screen computers. Representatives from C-SPAN presented the Road to the White House website which features video of campaign events and information on state races.
Outside, Tout representative Katie Fountain guided visitors through the process of uploading 15-second videos to the social media website via smartphone. Some of the questions students addressed in the videos included “Which presidential candidate do you think will bring about the best job prospects for you and why?” and “What is the most important issue to you in this presidential election?”
“The key issue for this campaign season is people voting just for the sake of voting and not actually informing themselves about why they’re voting,” touted WCU senior Jeff Wilber.
See what else WCU students had to say on the C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus Tout page.
C-SPAN’s Campaign 2012 Bus will visit Winston-Salem on Friday, May 4, with stops at Wake Forest University from 10:30 a.m. to noon and High Point University from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The complete list of stops in North Carolina is available at c-span.org/bus.
