C-SPAN tour bus promotes political education [GALLERY]

Jeremy Anderson
Associate Editor

On Tuesday, Nov. 3,  the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, commonly known as C-SPAN, stopped on the campus of Jackson State University in the award-winning C-SPAN Bus.

The bus has been touring states in the South in cities such as Beaumont, Texas, Baton Rouge, La., and Montgomery, Ala., before Jackson State became a resting stop.

While on campus, students were able to walk onto to the bus and engage with technological learning tools that offered various information about the 2016 presidential election, and also about C-SPAN in general.

In a promotion for the news channel and in an effort to engage the with community, the C-SPAN Bus Program stops at high schools, universities, political gatherings, book fairs and other venues to give students and faculty the opportunity to interactively engage in learning about public affairs, congressional debates, history, and non-fiction books related to the network.

The bus offered technological methods to connect with C-SPAN via social media, and even quizzes to test political and historical knowledge.

“I think the bus was very informative. There were interactive screens that were preloaded with a lot of information. There was historic information, as well as some up-to-date information regarding the 2016 election,” said Kesicia Dickinson, a junior criminal justice major from Walnut Grove, Miss.

Dickinson also said, “It’s a good way to pull peoples’ attention toward the election. In this generation, you have to meet the people where they are, and I think the bus is a great effort in doing so.”

Archives of video were available to access as well as promotions for upcoming features on C-SPAN’s television schedule.

Jasmine Jackson, a junior political science major from Little Rock, Ark., said, “The thing that stuck out to me was the program that C-SPAN is going to be showing about the first ladies and their influence, especially since Hillary Clinton will be in the 2016 presidential election and she was a first lady. So it would be interesting to see what C-SPAN has to say about her, and I wonder if they’re going to make any predictions of how she’d be as president.”

Earlier this year, C-SPAN made a point to visit other Historically Black Colleges and Universities around the country such as Spelman College, Morehouse College, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, and Howard University.

Charence Higgins, a senior psychology and theatre major from Madison, Miss., and 2015-2016 Miss JSU said, “I want them to come back. I think it’s a great thing, but I’d definitely want them to stay for a longer time … If they were to come back, I’d want them to publicize better. I think if more students knew about it, it would have a better outreach.”

After Jackson, the C-SPAN Bus will be headed for other cities in Mississippi such as Hattiesburg, Pascagoula, and Biloxi.

All photos by William H. Kelly III.