Politics, American Government, and Elections: Lessons Learned and Skills Sharpened -- E-Portfolio, Thomas Hartwell

Political Communication and the Creation of Finished Products for Presentation

This semester's work in our political reporting course gave me the skills necessary to research, observe, and intelligently report on issues affecting or pertaining to the 2016 presidential race and the effects of that race. Although I experienced and learned much that I didn't already know, I also expanded my knowledge on a number of subjects and topics within the realm of U.S. government and politics. 

Three key take-aways:

1. RESEARCH/OBSERVATION: Observation and research takes teamwork; if you're on your own, make records. 

This take-away works hand-in-hand with, "always be more prepared than you think you have to be." As a more specific illustration, I'll use the example of the Morehouse College Bernie Sanders event. As it was my first rally, or political event in general for that matter, I had no specific expectations and thought that I had properly prepared. When I arrived, I was proven mistaken. When I arrived more than an hour early, the line to enter the rally stretched for miles. My group members arrived after I did, still on time, but were forced into an even longer wait time. The teamwork aspect began here. I had to be in close communication with my group members, my other classmates, and my professors in order to find a way into the rally. Also, while inside, I had to take photos, conduct interviews, etc., while I relied on group members to observe and record surrogate speeches and Sanders' speech rhetoric.

Lines to enter the Morehouse College rally stretched for miles long before the
rally was set to begin. Photo by Thomas Hartwell

(Confidence also came into play here, as I decided to give a shot to the press entrance, where we were given access to the media section and things began to improve). At this event and at others, teamwork in observation was essential. Photos, notes, interviews, and other observations cannot effectively be conducted by one person. If that one individual does find themselves alone, however, notes and audio/video recorded records are essential. Relying on one's own memory alone is both unrealistic and, in terms of reliable journalism, completely irresponsible. Taking detailed records with names, dates, times, emails, numbers, etc., saved me in writing stories and research reports later.

2. NARRATIVE/PRESENTATION OF POLICOM: The more eyes, the better in editing; someone else might know better than you, so listen.

In a college setting, having already completed three and a half years of courses, it was easy to feel that my way was best in completing what was often group assignments. However, in working with professionals and students of different backgrounds, I attempted to put my own ideas of what I thought was best on the "back-burner" in order to gain insight into my areas of less knowledge from those who had more. The result of understanding that someone else may know better about a specific area of work will benefit those who concede to that notion and listen in the long run. The more people who look at a draft of a research report or a news story allows for more eyes educated on an array of topics and simply more eyes to catch grammatical errors.

3. FRAMING: The way that you, as the reporter, present information can determine what the audience thinks/talks about -- that's a lot of power. 

This take-away ties into the idea of framing and even media bias discussed in our course. While it is widely accepted that the media or media presentation of news stories cannot determine how people feel about a topic or story, it is a fact that the media decides what stories to present and, therefore, determines what people think about. This course was a depiction of what my career could potentially look like, so in my writing and even in my editing of group members' writing, I, and all of us, needed to be careful to exclude opinion from our presentation. We also needed to understand what it was that we were deciding to present, and from what angle, and we needed to understand that choosing not to present certain information can often be seen as taking a side. While this was only a course, and I was not subject to, for example, lawsuits based on what I presented, I, and all of us, need to recognize the ability we could potentially have in a journalistic line of work.

Journalism and Political Research Projects

Content Analysis #1: Analysis of Rubio and Sanders campaign websites

This content analysis analyzed the campaign websites of Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders for mobilization tactics of young voters. The tactics were searched for and documented by creating a code sheet for comparison. The code sheet took into account buzz words and social media words used on the campaign website homepage which were seen as attractive to a young voter base. This code sheet was used as a metric of discussion for the paper. Words like share, like, comment, new voter, social media, video content, and headlines compiled as "lists" (in Buzzfeed style) were included on the code sheet. The website homepages were also analyzed visually. Group members further delved into the context of comments and excerpts from deeper pages within the websites which could have been seen as attractive to a young voter base, but these sections were not included in the coding and instead were discussed in the findings and discussion. Our group, in editing, was careful to search for and remove sections that were opinionated, or could not be properly backed up with either visual evidence or expert sources. 

My specific contributions to this project were the writing of the introduction, methods, and a portion of the findings and discussion sections as well as the screenshots and identifying and citing of appropriate sources both in-text and on the references page. I also edited the paper for cohesive reading and objectivity.

News Story #1: Sanders Morehouse college rally event

On February 16, 2016, at Morehouse College, Bernie Sanders and several campaign surrogates spoke on behalf of his campaign for president. This assignment was a presentation of a news story about the event with proper AP style, photo captions, bylines, and objective, journalistic reporting. The choice of angle on the story was our own, and we chose to present the story from the perspective of Sanders' growth in poll numbers and common campaign rhetoric. We also chose to focus on the age of supporters whom we interviewed, (which ranged from 16-93) as Sanders' campaign is often seen as supported solely by Millennials. Comments came from campaign surrogates, Bernie supporters young and old, and Sanders' own speech rhetoric. 

My specific contributions to this project were conducting all the interviews, photography, captions, writing the story, and AP style editing.

Field Research Project: Analysis of Sanders' rhetoric in his speeches (Morehouse campaign rally)

Our group presented the Morehouse College rally as a news story (as mentioned above), as well as produced a field research project on it. Our field research, considered the same night as the news story, focused on the rhetoric in Sanders' speech. Our group focused on the language and rhetorical strategies that Sanders and his surrogates used in order to mobilize voters for their cause; we focused mainly on the young voter base supporting Sanders and presented the question, "How is he mobilizing young voters?" Our group used the interviews, photos, and audio/video recordings that we captured as evidence to our claims of mobilization tactics and discussed, in the research report, how those tactics might result in voter turnout.

My specific contributions to this project were contributions to the findings and discussion as well as the key findings section of the paper and overall editing of paper for cohesive reading and accuracy. I also found related sources to sure up expert comments and cited sources both in-text and on the references page.

News Story #2: Kasich town hall at KSU

Our group wrote this news story from the very simple angle of "what did Kasich say?" We also considered the rhetoric he was using as it pertained to the presidential race. His speech seemed more inspirational than that of a campaign event, and the audience questions prodded him for more aggression and policy issues. Our story focused on his answers to those questions, his own rhetoric, and the crowd of young people (not normally his target) in attendance. Comments ranged from audience questions to Kasich's own words to reactions after the event from others in the audience. Again, proper AP style, photos, captions, bylines, etc., were expected.

John Kasich speaks at a town hall event at Kennesaw State University.
Photo by Thomas Hartwell

My specific contributions to this project were editing for AP style, taking photos, writing captions, and small contributions to story writing.

News Story #3: State of the presidential race and Republican contested convention chances

This story focused on the presidential race as a whole from beginning to the time of the project deadline. Our group focused on the GOP race and included a delegate count as a graphic to illustrate a horserace frame. This news story required discussion with an expert in the field of politics (Kerwin Swint) and also provided comments from voters and statistics from large media conglomerates (CNN). The story was an in-depth look at the GOP race thus far, candidate behavior, debate results, primaries, and other influential factors in 2016 campaigns. Potential future predictions from experts were included and perspectives and comments from all sides were presented on issues, primaries, and a potential contested convention. 

My specific contributions to this project were the writing of the story and conducting of two of the three interviews.

Content Analysis #2: Analysis of two media outlets (CNN and Fox) and their framing of 2016 presidential campaign stories

This research project required in-depth coding and understanding of 50 news stories between two media outlets, CNN and Fox. 25 stories on the current presidential race from each outlet were compiled, read, and analyzed before being organized into two code sheets. The code sheets considered the dominant frame of each story and categorized them based on an agreed upon set of criteria. Dominant frames could be shared. The frames were counted, averaged and compiled into data sets represented in two charts. The research paper revolved around the different ways in which media outlets report the same events/stories. Our findings showed a difference and the differences as well as possible explanations of the idea of framing from outside sources were discussed. Findings were compared and in a more open presentation/discussion, possible media biases were explored with the rest of the class and the instructors.

My specific contributions to this project were providing screenshots, making graphs, and the writing of the paper after receiving the results of the coding. I also created appendices and brought in and cited sources both in-text and on the reference page.

Story Visuals

Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd of more than 5,000 at
Morehouse College in Atlanta. Photo by Thomas Hartwell

This photo, taken by me, encompasses the atmosphere of the rally event. Sanders and his surrogates spoke for hours about his accomplishments, his record of human rights support, and his hopes of continuing that support in the White House. Reporting the news of events like this was utterly exciting and the surroundings and constant movement and noise was a reflection of the energy it takes to bring together all of the necessary aspects of reporting.

Bernie supporters brandished signs, dressed up, and brought their friends
to show support for the 2016 candidate. Photo by Thomas Hartwell

Another of my photos speaks to a privilege that journalism as a whole brings -- meeting so many interesting people. This photo was in the running, but was not used in the course's required story work. I wanted to include it, however, because beyond the academic and professional aspects of reporting and researching American government and elections, are personal ones. Meeting and interacting and hearing stories of so many interesting people both furthered my excitement for the assignments I was on, but also for my career in journalism.

Course Objectives

Our courses learning objectives expressed the goals of the course to produce a reporter/researcher who could intelligently and accurately capture and report or portray the essence of an event or the entirety of the 2016 race in a cohesive unit of work, often with partners. The objectives and my own assessment of whether or not I accomplished the goals of those course objectives follow.

· Demonstrating the ability to produce high quality research projects relating to political communication in American elections 

Yes, I feel that I accomplished this goal. This course allowed for teamwork between students of different specialties and backgrounds to produce high quality work and required research that, in most respects, could not, in turn, produce work of any non-informed manner. I learned how to research different aspects of what would, to me, normally be a news story in ways that could be presented cohesively and understandably to a general audience.

· Accurately describing and providing critical perspectives on the intersection between political communication and American elections

Yes, I feel that this goal was accomplished. I feel that I already had a grasp on the political aspects of the course and could, for the most part, understand and present different perspectives of those aspects. However, I do feel that, even if I had not put much effort into learning more about American Politics and Government, I have become much more informed and knowledgeable on these topics. Furthermore, I have developed a want to learn further about these topics and, outside of class, but surely as a result of the course in part, have been researching and observing and seeking out information pertaining to American Government and Elections.

· Producing high quality political journalism on the theme of American elections 

Yes, I feel that I accomplished this goal. I already had a strong understanding of the presentation of news and journalism as a whole before beginning this course, but had not yet written on the applied themes alone. Being in this course educated me on the topic and introduced me to the many ways and angles in which political news is reported. The limitations and biases and ways to avoid them were also briefly explored, and often encountered in the course as well. Even these obstacles presented challenges for learning. All of these aspects of the process of producing pieces of journalism contributed to the production of high quality work for the course. 

· Respectfully observing American political communication processes in practice 

I feel that this goal was completed/observed for the most part. While I often struggled keeping my opinion to myself in the class discussions and not being biased against certain candidates, I feel that when I went to observe political practices and when I produced pieces of political research or journalism, I was able to speak objectively, presenting all sides of the argument or research and leaving opinion up to the consumer of the information.