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Using C-SPAN in the AP U.S. Government and Politics Classroom
by Stephen Frantzich
U.S. Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland
U.S. Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland
Our "Fly on the Wall" in Washington
C-SPAN (the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is the ultimate political reality television. Once an event begins, the cameras never stop. There is no editing and no commentary. Whether broadcasting a session of the House or Senate, covering a congressional committee, or providing access to a White House press conference, C-SPAN attempts to act like a "fly on the wall," observing what is going on without embellishing or affecting it.
For better, or for worse, our students are visually oriented and have short attention spans. While we can decry these trends and seek to understand their origin, effective learning stems from meeting students where they are and moving them forward. The visual representation of facts and concepts creates a memory "hook" that helps students amass the building blocks of an effective education. Making concepts alive increases learning. Whether you are teaching toward state standards or more locally defined goals, C-SPAN offers raw material in a wide variety of substantive areas for enlivening the learning process. Whether you are attempting to teach how a bill becomes a law, techniques of persuasion, or the relationship between the branches of government, C-SPAN has programming that will support your effort.
Disengagement from Politics
Parents, educators, and politicians alike are concerned about the high level of cynicism combined with the low level of political engagement by successive generations of students. Although some may place considerable hope in the "bump" in voting participation evident in the 2004 election, their optimism needs to be tempered with the realization that despite the fact that turnout among younger voters was higher than in the last few presidential elections, the participating gap between younger and older voters has not diminished. There is a significant likelihood that patterns of disengagement developed at a young age will repeat themselves as that age-cohort itself ages.
Participation levels are more generational than life-stage related. While it is true that younger voters find it more difficult to participate due to their physical mobility and lower perceived stake, it is not evident that when they settle down and begin to raise a family and pay taxes they will revert to the greater participation rates of preceding generations.
According to the 2004 election surveys, only 24 percent of those under 24 agreed with the statement that "Public officials care about people like me" (compared with 48 percent of people between 45 and 50). In the same survey, 44 percent of those under 24 agreed that "People like me have a say in what government does" (compared with 54 percent of those 45 to 54 years old)1. No matter how the question is asked, younger citizens express greater cynicism. Negative attitudes about government carry through when it comes to political engagement. In 2004, 62 percent of citizens under age 24 claimed to have voted compared to over 80 percent of those in their fifties2. The only civic engagement in which young citizens surpass their elders is in politically "sanitized" volunteer activities.
Exhorting students to be good citizens -- or sugarcoating politics by shielding students from its more aggressive strategies -- is not creating an active citizenry. Shocking students with misdeeds of current officeholders does not motivate them to take the political reins and improve the process themselves. Perhaps a good dose of political reality will challenge some of our students' assumptions, reveal moments of commendable behavior by public officials, and expose students to useful strategies for political engagement. Democracy assumes the competency of its citizens to make valid judgments about officeholders. Learning those skills early has the potential for long-term payoffs.
Our students are neither uninformed nor ignorant. They know a great deal about certain topics from a limited range of media. They are not newspaper readers in the traditional sense. If they see newspaper content, it is more likely to come from a Web site than from a hardcopy edition. When they watch television, sports and the current spate of reality programming dominate their attention. Turning students on to the reality political programming of C-SPAN could be our entr�e to turn them on to more robust sources of information.
The Learning Connection: Academic Goals
Visual content, whether it is delivered through broadcast television or over the Internet, increasingly dominates how students experience the wider world. Just as education has long been responsible for teaching traditional literacy skills, it must now take on the responsibility of expanding that task to visual material. To some degree, the evaluative skills overlap. Just as with the written word, literate individuals seek to determine who produced the material and what their goals, assumptions, and biases might be. In addition, visual literacy calls the user's attention to the visual content and how it might affect the message received. Students should be alerted to evaluating the physical setting, the backdrop, and the impact of camera angles and breakaway reaction shots on the scene. By covering complete events, often starting before the official event gets under way, C-SPAN offers excellent raw material for student learning and analysis.
C-SPAN offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to content. A brief listing of its offerings does not do it justice. Virtually every stage in the government process could be illuminated, from presidential agenda setting to congressional committee hearings, votes in Congress, bill-signing ceremonies, bureaucratic implementation hearings, and the observations of participants in court cases. The perspectives of private citizens, interest groups, and public officials are covered on call-in programs, press conferences, and policy forums. Special historical series on American presidents, American writers, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and Alexis de Tocqueville offer in-depth programming, transporting viewers to the sites of various events and providing expert commentary. C-SPAN is currently launching a new initiative that specifically supports civic engagement.
Access to C-SPAN
In most areas of the country, C-SPAN offers two channels of public affairs programming 24 hours a day. Unlike many video resources, C-SPAN grants free and unlimited use for classroom purposes -- no need to seek permission to tape, edit, or utilize their materials. C-SPAN's permissions policy clearly and unequivocally states the following:
C-SPAN programming may be taped free off the air. The C-SPAN Web site (www.c-span.org) offers live viewing over the Internet and access to recent programming online, and it serves as a gateway to the C-SPAN archives. All C-SPAN programming is taped and can be purchased at reasonable rates on tape or in digitized form.
Standing on the Shoulders of Others
There is no need to go it alone. "C-SPAN in the Classroom" offers an extensive Web site with a rich variety of lesson plans organized by topic and searchable online. Free membership in this program provides access to a wide variety of resources.
C-SPAN in the Classroom
The C-SPAN Middle and High School Teacher Fellowships provide teachers with funding to take part in a four-week summer program at C-SPAN, including access to C-SPAN archives. The C-SPAN Archives Grant offers use of, or funding for, archival materials. C-SPAN also offers seminars for teachers and a variety of student contests designed to enhance learning.
The next step is really yours. C-SPAN does not have anything to sell. It is not dependent on ratings and has no commercials. It provides the raw materials for teachers to utilize as they professionally see fit. The network has no desire to force the teaching of any particular content. That is your right and responsibility. Your task is to determine those areas where learning is difficult and teaching frustrating. Then shift into your creative mode to see if C-SPAN has some materials that might supplement your efforts. Like all resources, C-SPAN will not turn a bad teacher into a good one -- but it can turn a good teacher into a better one.
1 The National Election Studies (www.umich.edu/~nes). The 2004 National Election Study. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies [analysis by the author].
2 Ibid.
Stephen Frantzich is a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He is the author of 14 books, most recently Cyberage Politics 101: Mobility, Technology, and Democracy (Peter Lang Publishing), which analyzes social trends undermining civic engagement, and Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers), which profiles the strategies of over two dozen citizen activists who changed national policy.
C-SPAN (the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is the ultimate political reality television. Once an event begins, the cameras never stop. There is no editing and no commentary. Whether broadcasting a session of the House or Senate, covering a congressional committee, or providing access to a White House press conference, C-SPAN attempts to act like a "fly on the wall," observing what is going on without embellishing or affecting it.
For better, or for worse, our students are visually oriented and have short attention spans. While we can decry these trends and seek to understand their origin, effective learning stems from meeting students where they are and moving them forward. The visual representation of facts and concepts creates a memory "hook" that helps students amass the building blocks of an effective education. Making concepts alive increases learning. Whether you are teaching toward state standards or more locally defined goals, C-SPAN offers raw material in a wide variety of substantive areas for enlivening the learning process. Whether you are attempting to teach how a bill becomes a law, techniques of persuasion, or the relationship between the branches of government, C-SPAN has programming that will support your effort.
Disengagement from Politics
Parents, educators, and politicians alike are concerned about the high level of cynicism combined with the low level of political engagement by successive generations of students. Although some may place considerable hope in the "bump" in voting participation evident in the 2004 election, their optimism needs to be tempered with the realization that despite the fact that turnout among younger voters was higher than in the last few presidential elections, the participating gap between younger and older voters has not diminished. There is a significant likelihood that patterns of disengagement developed at a young age will repeat themselves as that age-cohort itself ages.
Participation levels are more generational than life-stage related. While it is true that younger voters find it more difficult to participate due to their physical mobility and lower perceived stake, it is not evident that when they settle down and begin to raise a family and pay taxes they will revert to the greater participation rates of preceding generations.
According to the 2004 election surveys, only 24 percent of those under 24 agreed with the statement that "Public officials care about people like me" (compared with 48 percent of people between 45 and 50). In the same survey, 44 percent of those under 24 agreed that "People like me have a say in what government does" (compared with 54 percent of those 45 to 54 years old)1. No matter how the question is asked, younger citizens express greater cynicism. Negative attitudes about government carry through when it comes to political engagement. In 2004, 62 percent of citizens under age 24 claimed to have voted compared to over 80 percent of those in their fifties2. The only civic engagement in which young citizens surpass their elders is in politically "sanitized" volunteer activities.
Exhorting students to be good citizens -- or sugarcoating politics by shielding students from its more aggressive strategies -- is not creating an active citizenry. Shocking students with misdeeds of current officeholders does not motivate them to take the political reins and improve the process themselves. Perhaps a good dose of political reality will challenge some of our students' assumptions, reveal moments of commendable behavior by public officials, and expose students to useful strategies for political engagement. Democracy assumes the competency of its citizens to make valid judgments about officeholders. Learning those skills early has the potential for long-term payoffs.
Our students are neither uninformed nor ignorant. They know a great deal about certain topics from a limited range of media. They are not newspaper readers in the traditional sense. If they see newspaper content, it is more likely to come from a Web site than from a hardcopy edition. When they watch television, sports and the current spate of reality programming dominate their attention. Turning students on to the reality political programming of C-SPAN could be our entr�e to turn them on to more robust sources of information.
The Learning Connection: Academic Goals
Visual content, whether it is delivered through broadcast television or over the Internet, increasingly dominates how students experience the wider world. Just as education has long been responsible for teaching traditional literacy skills, it must now take on the responsibility of expanding that task to visual material. To some degree, the evaluative skills overlap. Just as with the written word, literate individuals seek to determine who produced the material and what their goals, assumptions, and biases might be. In addition, visual literacy calls the user's attention to the visual content and how it might affect the message received. Students should be alerted to evaluating the physical setting, the backdrop, and the impact of camera angles and breakaway reaction shots on the scene. By covering complete events, often starting before the official event gets under way, C-SPAN offers excellent raw material for student learning and analysis.
C-SPAN offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to content. A brief listing of its offerings does not do it justice. Virtually every stage in the government process could be illuminated, from presidential agenda setting to congressional committee hearings, votes in Congress, bill-signing ceremonies, bureaucratic implementation hearings, and the observations of participants in court cases. The perspectives of private citizens, interest groups, and public officials are covered on call-in programs, press conferences, and policy forums. Special historical series on American presidents, American writers, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and Alexis de Tocqueville offer in-depth programming, transporting viewers to the sites of various events and providing expert commentary. C-SPAN is currently launching a new initiative that specifically supports civic engagement.
Access to C-SPAN
In most areas of the country, C-SPAN offers two channels of public affairs programming 24 hours a day. Unlike many video resources, C-SPAN grants free and unlimited use for classroom purposes -- no need to seek permission to tape, edit, or utilize their materials. C-SPAN's permissions policy clearly and unequivocally states the following:
National Cable Satellite Corporation, d/b/a C-SPAN ("C-SPAN") hereby grants educators associated with degree-granting educational institutions this license containing the right to make a copy of any C-SPAN-produced program without receiving prior permission from the network, so long as the copying is for in-classroom use and not for sale, distribution, or for any political purpose. As public domain material, the video coverage of the floor proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and of the U.S. Senate is not subject to this license, and as such, may also be similarly used for educational purposes.It is only when users seek to create a product that generates revenue that C-SPAN seeks commercial licensing fees.
The terms of this license constitute a liberal copyright policy that allows educators to record C-SPAN-produced programs (at school or at home) for later use. Such programs may be retained in perpetuity for future in-classroom use.
No license fee shall be due for using C-SPAN as an educational resource so long as such use is made in accordance with the terms of this license.
C-SPAN programming may be taped free off the air. The C-SPAN Web site (www.c-span.org) offers live viewing over the Internet and access to recent programming online, and it serves as a gateway to the C-SPAN archives. All C-SPAN programming is taped and can be purchased at reasonable rates on tape or in digitized form.
Standing on the Shoulders of Others
There is no need to go it alone. "C-SPAN in the Classroom" offers an extensive Web site with a rich variety of lesson plans organized by topic and searchable online. Free membership in this program provides access to a wide variety of resources.
C-SPAN in the ClassroomThe C-SPAN Middle and High School Teacher Fellowships provide teachers with funding to take part in a four-week summer program at C-SPAN, including access to C-SPAN archives. The C-SPAN Archives Grant offers use of, or funding for, archival materials. C-SPAN also offers seminars for teachers and a variety of student contests designed to enhance learning.
The next step is really yours. C-SPAN does not have anything to sell. It is not dependent on ratings and has no commercials. It provides the raw materials for teachers to utilize as they professionally see fit. The network has no desire to force the teaching of any particular content. That is your right and responsibility. Your task is to determine those areas where learning is difficult and teaching frustrating. Then shift into your creative mode to see if C-SPAN has some materials that might supplement your efforts. Like all resources, C-SPAN will not turn a bad teacher into a good one -- but it can turn a good teacher into a better one.
1 The National Election Studies (www.umich.edu/~nes). The 2004 National Election Study. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies [analysis by the author].
2 Ibid.
Stephen Frantzich is a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He is the author of 14 books, most recently Cyberage Politics 101: Mobility, Technology, and Democracy (Peter Lang Publishing), which analyzes social trends undermining civic engagement, and Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers), which profiles the strategies of over two dozen citizen activists who changed national policy.