A 45-foot long bus emblazoned with the words "C-SPAN" stationed itself in front of the Woodruff P.E. Center on Wednesday afternoon.
The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) is a private, non-profit television network, broadcasting the affairs of the federal government. The bus is the vehicle for C-SPAN's Campaign 2012, which is a cross-country tour to educate and promote discussion about public affairs via a number of interactive methods. Post-election, the bus is heading toward its final event: President Obama's inauguration.
While the bus was at Emory for around two hours, few students visited it. When asked about it, many students did not know it was at Emory or were uninterested in seeing it. Those that did participate in the bus's interactive features, however, found it to be informative.
"The whole bus itself is very user-friendly," said Chris Demanche, a marketing representative of C-SPAN who divides his time between traveling with the bus and planning future tours.
In the interior of the bus lay a variety of interactive features, including televisions, touch screen monitors, laptops and cell phones. The televisions lining the walls showed previews for upcoming C-SPAN broadcasts, such as a special about First Ladies, set to be released early 2013.
Students were able to operate the touch screens where they could visit the C-SPAN website and follow C-SPAN on different social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. They could also play trivia quiz games about the different branches of government and surf C-SPAN's video library, which consists of 190,000 hours of footage of speeches, interviews and political events.
"I thought it was really indicative of how important social media has become in the presidential elections," said Laura Flint, a College freshman.
Indeed, the bus has been traveling year-round to different campaign events like primary elections, conventions and debates. The tour has also visited dozens of college campuses to spread information about C-SPAN and the election.
"We meet so many different people and we see a lot of different things, a lot of different opinions ... I get to see cities I probably never would have gone to," said Jessica Lindquist, marketing representative of C-SPAN.
Some students, however, thought that the bus would have drawn more interest at a different time.
"I think it would've been more beneficial during the election," said College freshman Hannah Grosman. "People would be more interested, and it would've been more helpful."
– By Rupsha Basu
