Voting in the Sphere

Citizen media concerns a network of communication that is produced for and by ordinary citizens reporting on things that are of concern to them. When reading this past week’s edition of The Cord, I found an interesting example of this type of media. On the bottom corner of one of the pages was a small advertisement that promoted an online streaming of the presidential debate for the upcoming WLUSU elections this coming. The Wilfrid Laurier University Student Union’s (WLUSU) election is an election in which every WLU student has the opportunity to have their voice and opinions heard by casting a vote for their preferred presidential and board of director candidate to represent the student body. The advertisement placed in The Cord was advertising a new initiative in streaming an all new presidential debate online so that every student may have the opportunity to listen to the debate to make an informed decision in the upcoming election.

During the live, real-time screening of the presidential debate, there was a chat feature right beside the screen airing the debate, so that individuals on the online community may share opinions and discuss the debate simultaneously as it airs. This interactive feature certainly adds a new element to citizen involvement with media, and it is interesting how that medium serves as an informal forum for people to gather and critique issues at hand. Further there is also a blog dedicated to the 2010 WLUSU elections outlining everything pertaining to the election, as well as providing another type of citizen media to reach the student public in an attempt to raise awareness and spread information.

As a WLU student and an election day volunteer, I’m very pleased with the introduction of several different types of citizen journalism and media in an attempt to better reach the student body. In past years there has been quite a low voter turn-out and what seems to be an overall lack of concern with the student union elections. I hope that with this shift of citizen media into the larger public sphere of the internet, more people will take the opportunity to get informed about their voting choices. With that information, hopefully the voter turnout with greatly increase this year, and with a larger public/online forum opening up, students will want to engage, critique and care about the student union that is ultimately formed to represent their issues and overall well-being.

So go out and vote on Feb 4th!