C-SPAN’s Campaign 2016 Bus visited Boston University Tuesday, introducing the TV network’s customized campaign app that allows visitors to explore C-SPAN’s coverage of presidential candidates’ campaign trails.
Parking on Commonwealth Avenue in front of Marsh Plaza, the bus welcomed the BU community to board the vehicle and explore C-SPAN’s footage of the 2016 campaign season through interactive touch-screens and laptops.
The visitors were also able to learn about the network’s resources regarding the United States Congress, White House, federal courts and the American political process.
The 20-year-old, 45-foot customized bus made its stop at BU as part of a two-day Massachusetts tour and a yearlong nationwide tour, visiting North Andover Middle School, Medford High School and Excel High School as well. It additionally aims to promote an upcoming 12-part history series titled Landmark Cases, scheduled to debut in October on C-SPAN.
C-SPAN spokesperson Chellie Zou said the tour’s main goal is to educate people and visitors on what C-SPAN has been doing as a public affairs network.
“[The bus] is pretty hard to miss. We have a brand new wrap on the outside and when visitors come on the bus, it’s really an active experience,” she said. “We have touch screens and laptops and tons of information about C-SPAN.”
Zou added that C-SPAN collaborated with the BU School of Law for promotional and logistical assistance regarding the network’s upcoming series and their visit to campus.
“[BU Law is] the one who helped us with the coordination of the bus coming and our point of contact. Boston University has been really great to work with so it just worked out logistically,” she said. “The school helps on-campus promotion to students.”
Welcoming the flow of students, faculty and staff members, Zou said the community’s response has been “pretty excited.”
“When you see the outside of the bus versus when you come in, there’s a totally different reaction and that’s really good,” Zou said. “These gadgets focus on videos of the candidates, electoral maps from previous elections which is pretty interesting and how the numbers are broken down. We’re adding more to it as the campaign goes along since we still have a quite bit of time.”
Several visitors to the bus said C-SPAN did an effective job increasing on-campus awareness and interest towards the 2016 campaign season, and urged students to look into what’s happening in the nation’s politics.
Austin Kruger, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, said what he read and watched aboard the bus informed him about many of the presidential candidates.
“I watched several different videos of different candidates giving speeches and it was cool because it was just different,” he said. “People should be interested in who the next president of the United States will be. Hopefully they’ll be watching the election, they’ll be reading about what’s going on and they’ll make an informed decision when they vote for their next leader.”
Tyler Durniak, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the presence of the bus was slightly confusing because “people are just not exactly sure” of its purpose.
“It’s interesting to see the set-up that news organizations have for covering the candidates,” he said. “They have a lot of displays that talk about the candidates and the elections and it sort of simplified the political campaign. They should probably try to expand off of college campuses and go to the community center, anywhere to just spread word about the election a little more.”
Kristina Rugnetta, a senior in the College of Communication, said she hoped to see more “easy-to-read” images, since it took her a long time to go through all the written information provided on the bus.
“I didn’t learn that much [about American politics and the election] but I learned about C-SPAN and their coverage because C-SPAN isn’t as popular as they were in the past,” she said. “We are a big university but I think it’s important that C-SPAN goes to schools that aren’t as prestigious as BU in order to get voters because it doesn’t matter what school you go to as long as you’re being educated.”
