Spring 2003
Special Orders


C-SPAN = Civic Education


Steve Frantzich

 

In a real sense, C-SPAN is civic education in its purest form. Created by the cable industry in 19791 to provide unfiltered public access to CongressÕ official proceedings, it now offers 24-hour programming on two channels covering a wide range of political institutions and processes. C-SPANÕs founder and guiding force, Brian Lamb, began with the basic premise that citizens were smart, interested enough to view Congress as it works, and able to make reasonable relevant political judgments. C-SPAN was designed as a "window" on the political process for the average citizen. It approaches civic education with the premise that "if we make it available, they will watch."2 Their balanced and bland "fly on the wall" method of full event coverage with a minimum of interpretation certainly does not appeal to all, especially in the sound-bite environment of modern media. Rather C-SPAN attempts to give interested citizens the raw material for evaluating government and potentially taking action. C-SPAN's initiatives into civic education start and end with the premise that an informed citizenry will improve the process and the outcome. C-SPAN assiduously attempts to avoid a political agenda, striving for fairness and balance to the point of empirically counting access given to various political views. Unencumbered by the need to secure high ratings to attract advertising dollars,3 C-SPAN is the network that can afford to be dull by covering Congress as it actually works as opposed to cherry picking sound bites. Watching sound bites about Congress on commercial television gives the impression of catch-phrase eloquence punctuated by vicious conflict, neither of which gives citizens a sound base to interpret and act on the public policy process. It is an important part of civic education to see that the policy process is slow, complex and often messy. Citizens with the fortitude to follow politics on C-SPAN acquire a more complete and realistic civic education.

Aside from presenting a plethora of public affairs programming, C-SPAN has embarked on a number of specific civic education initiatives directed both to the public and more indirectly through educators.

 

Going Directly to the Public: Retail Civic Education

 

Regular C-SPAN Programming

C-SPAN begins with a commitment to provide a "window" on the political process by guaranteeing gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House and the Senate, a service provided by no other source.  In covering the House and Senate, C-SPAN depends on cameras controlled by each chamber.  Chamber rules determine how wide the "window" is thrown open. When covering other events such as congressional hearings, news conferences, speeches, and other public affairs events, C-SPAN controls its own cameras and is guided by a format commitment to present events in their entirety and substantively to offer balanced set of events (in terms of ideology and issue area). Seeing themselves as the public affairs alternative to the commercial networks, C-SPAN shies away from events everyone else will carry, or carries them at alternative times to provide wider access.  Coverage of events is augmented with call-in programs with non-obtrusive moderators and discussions with public officials and journalists.

 

Booknotes

Brian Lamb's Sunday evening Booknotes program (and the more extensive weekend Book TV)  serves as a backdoor to engage  individuals who may not otherwise seek out political information. Eschewing the typical short book tour interviews, Lamb sits down with an author for a full hour. The over 700 interviews capture the full range of public affairs books of the last decade. Again trusting the public to accept long-form television, Book TV  follows authors of public affairs books around as they present  their books at bookstore and convention signings.

 

Special Features

Election years give C-SPAN many opportunities to educate the public through access to candidate debates, campaign commercials from around the country, and cinema verite coverage of candidates on the campaign trail. ItsRoad to the White House series  begins as soon as presidential campaign activity begins, often more than two years before the next election. Non-election years allow C-SPAN to expand the realm of civic education through in-depth series such as  Tocqueville in America, Lincoln-Douglas Debates,  American Presidents, and American Writers.  The daily Washington Journal interviews politicians and journalists on the news of the day, giving callers the opportunity to question them directly.  Sunday evening Question Time adds a comparative and international component to civic education by providing viewers access to the entertaining and often raucous spectacle of the British Prime Minister facing Parliament. C-SPAN radio is broadcast directly in the Washington, D.C. area and via satellite throughout the country. It simulcasts some televised events and rebroadcasts both contemporary and historical audio.

 

The C-SPAN Web site  (http://www.c-span.org)
        C-SPAN recognizes the utility of the Web to archive material and provide a vehicle for tailored inquiry through various layers of information. The site includes highlights such as:

 

Using Educators as Intermediaries: Wholesale Civic Education

 

Educators are seen as a vehicle for developing the interests of future generations in public affairs. C-SPAN constantly seeks ways to forge partnerships with educators.

 

Copyright policy

C-SPAN signals its commitment to educators and the desire to have its material used in the classroom with an unrestrictive copyright policy allowing "educators associated with degree-granting educational institutionsÉthe right to tape any C-SPAN-produced program without receiving prior permissionÉfor classroom use." (www.c-span.org/classroom/csic_copyright.asp)

 

Educator's Programs

C-SPAN in the Classroom is a free membership service offering program alerts on upcoming programs, teacher training seminars, lesson plans and grants designed to encourage the use of public affairs programming by educators at all levels. Over 60,000 teachers use its services.

 

Teaching for Credit

C-SPAN recently launched an educational initiative with the University of Denver offering for credit courses via videoconference. Heavily utilizing C-SPAN's video archives and access to Washington-based political activists, C-SPAN has begun the process of allowing students in remote locations to have access to an expanded range of educational resources.

 

Going to the Public

C-SPAN's two yellow buses have become a symbol of the network, traveling to schools and colleges around the country. They act as a vehicle for interpreting C-SPAN's mission and message, while also serving as mobile studios to help generate programming from around the country.

 

Assessing C-SPAN's Impact on Civic Education and Engagement

 

Lacking ratings and other typical tools for measuring impact, it is hard to empirically verify C-SPAN's impact on the nation's civic health. Congress provided the cameras and encouraged C-SPAN distribution of floor proceedings under the premise that "to know Congress is to love Congress."  There is some evidence that in reality the consequence is "familiarity breeds contempt" since frequent C-SPAN viewers are critical of Congress performance. It is simplistic to say that Congress shot itself in the collective foot by opening the door to C-SPAN coverage.  What polling data we have indicates that C-SPAN viewers, far from being cynical naysayers, exhibit a sophisticated mix of enlightened skepticism and tempered hope. They have less concern about the institutions and processes of Congress than the general public, but hope for a new breed of member.4

           Perhaps the most relevant test of citizenship is the willingness to act in the political arena. In a post-2000 election survey, 77% of non-CSPAN viewers reported they had registered to vote compared with 90% of respondents to had ever watched C-SPAN and 93% of those who had watched it during the last week. Actual voting followed a similar pattern with less than 70% of non-CSPAN viewers reporting having voted compared with 85% of respondents who had ever watched C-SPAN and 90% of those who had watched it during the last week.5 While it is impossible to determine whether C-SPAN simply draws political activitists, affects the motivations for civic activism, or some combination, it is clear that C-SPAN viewing touches some of the most politically active segments of the population.6

C-SPAN's relatively small audience might suggest its very limited role in civic education and citizenship, but a number of mitigating factors lead to the opposite conclusion. First, its immediate audience is made up of political activists who use its content to educate and activate other citizens. C-SPAN "wholesales" political information to political activists and educators who then "retail" it to their students, friends, and neighbors. It has become increasingly common for newspaper articles, talk-show participants and political activists to sprinkle their conversations with facts and perceptions garnered from viewing C-SPAN.

Secondly, C-SPAN has increased the ability of the media, especially journalists outside of Washington, to monitor and report on Congress. 

Thirdly, much civic education and activism in America is mediated through interest groups. Their ability to monitor government and pass on information to their membership is greatly enhanced by C-SPAN.

Fourthly, the importance of a medium may well not be in its frequency of use, but rather the intensity of its utilization. C-SPAN is in some ways like the public library, collecting, organizing and archiving information that citizens use only sporadically. When an issue emerges, they seek out detailed information, but much of the time they click through the channels or web sites appreciatively recognizing that the resource is there when they need it.

Finally, civic education is virtually impossible if the public retains no trust in civic institutions. By enhancing the antiseptic of public exposure C-SPAN could force decision-makers to be more responsible. For many office holders, the fear now is less "how will it look in the newspapers" than "how will it look on C-SPAN?"  By making openness of government a functional possibility, C-SPAN  may help convince citizens that less can be done by stealth and motivate them to more effectively play a legitimate role in the process. Such a goal is heady, but no greater than the stakes for democracy involved.

 

Notes

           1. For a detailed history and analysis of C-SPAN and its implications, see Stephen Frantzich and John Sullivan, The C-SPAN Revolution,  Norman OK: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.

           2. It is probably no coincidence that  this sounds a great deal like the Field of Dreams assumption that "if you build it, they will come," since Brian Lamb's Indiana-bred Midwestern optimism and Field of Dreams' Iowa roots stem from the same origins.

           3. C-SPAN is funded directly by the cable industry providing C-SPAN a few cents from each cable subscriber each month. Recognizing the political sensitivities of corporate sponsorship, the cable industry has assiduously allowed programming choices to be made by the professionals at C-SPAN.

           4. See Frantzich and Sullivan, p. 251-252. The poll results are from the early 1990s and could reflect the fact that the C-SPAN audience was more politically independent than purely partisan. Unfortunately more recent polls on civic attitudes of the C-SPAN  audience  are not available.

           5. "C-SPAN's National Audiences Study, Fall 2000," a Statistical Research Inc. (SRI) national survey of  959 adults carried out after the election.

           6. In terms of demographics , the C-SPAN audience in 2000 was more male , better educated , and older than non-viewers. Politically, C-SPAN viewers were slightly more likely to have voted for George W. Bush, and more willing to identify themselves ideologically (95% of C-SPAN viewers compared with 88% of non-viewers expressed an ideological preference). In terms of ideology, among those with a preference, there was virtually no difference between C-SPAN viewers and non-viewers. "C-SPAN's National Audiences Study, Fall 2000," a SRI national survey of 959 adults.

 

Steve Frantzich is Professor and past Chair of the Department of Political  Science at the U.S. Naval Academy. He was chosen the outstanding teacher at the Academy in 1990 based on his creative use of video and computers and was recently honored as the runner-up outstanding researcher. He has written widely (12 books and numerous articles) on the impact of technology on politics and has served as a consultant to the U.S. Congress, numerous foreign legislatures, and a variety of think tanks and foundations. His most recent books are Citizen Democracy: Political Activists in a Cynical Age, which profiles two dozen average citizens who made a difference in national politics, and Cyberage Politics 101: Mobility, Technology and Democracy.  He is currently working on two interactive Web textbooks, one on Congress and one on American government. Dr. Frantzich graduated from Hamline University and received his Ph. D. from the University of Minnesota . He served as a Ford Foundation Fellow (Philippines), Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar (Philippines), and Senior Fulbright Scholar (Denmark and the Czech Republic). He can be contacted via e-mail at: frantzic@usna.edu.

 

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