Lauren Jost
ljost1@gmu.edu
9/23/08
Mason Votes Covers Party Conventions

            Mason’s Student Media has launched Mason Votes in order to educate college students on the choices for the 2008 Presidential Election. On August 28 and September 4, 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain spoke at their respective conventions. Mason Votes covered the event with live bloggers and interviews after each candidate’s speeches.   

The website, MasonVotes.gmu.edu, has biographies of each presidential candidate; including Green, Libertarian, and Independent candidates. Student blogs are featured on the site as well as articles from major news sources such as CNN and MSNBC.  

“Their [Mason Votes] coverage has been great. They really try to reach out to both sides of the aisle and get bloggers with differing opinions. I think it is hard to try and report election news fairly with people holding pre-made opinions,” said Josh St. Louis, College Republican second Vice Chairman.

George Mason University’s College Democrats and College Republicans hosted their with live watch parties conventions set up in the Johnson Center. For viewing the conventions, a large screen mounted on the second floor for optimal viewing. 

Present at the Democratic National (DNC) watch party was Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly, who gave a brief speech shortly before Obama’s DNC appearance urging students to register to vote. Roughly 200 students turned out for the DNC watch party.

At the RNC watch party a representative for Republican Congressional hopeful Keith Fimian spoke.   The RNC watch party student attendance was estimated between 70 to 80 students.

In attendance at both the RNC and the DNC watch parties were Grant Herring, President of the College Democrats, Josh St. Louis, co-chair of the College Republicans, and Mason Votes coordinator Christian Yingling; in addition to Mason students watching the speeches.

“Although I am biased, I think Mason Votes did an amazing job in our coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. For both [DNC and RNC] we were able to provide video of student's reactions, roundtable podcast interviews with Mason Votes' official conservative and liberal commentators, Live Blogs, and articles,” said Mason Votes coordinator Yingling.

During the Democratic National Convention watch party, held August 28, the Johnson Center atrium was filled with students awaiting Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, “This whole election is exciting; it’s historical in so many different ways,” said Junior Government major William Graessle.

At the Republican National Convention watch party on September 4, the Mason Votes’ live bloggers got into many heated discussions regarding the speech, especially about the RNC’s video depicting scenes of tragedy including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and flooding in Iowa.

The website, MasonVotes.gmu.edu, has biographies of each presidential candidate; including Green, Libertarian, and Independent candidates. Student blogs are featured on the site as well as articles from major news sources such as CNN and MSNBC.

Mason Votes covered the events live with student bloggers. The blogs were open to the public, not just to Mason students. During the events, the discussions were fielded by both Republican and Democratic students.