Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
Just because most of them are too young to vote does not mean Northern New Mexican students are not taking an interest in the presidential elections.
Students in Mesa Vista High School’s journalism class are expecting one or two free video cameras from Video Your Vote, a joint venture by the Public Broadcasting Service and video-sharing site YouTube that asks “citizen journalists” to document the presidential campaigns and elections.
Journalism teacher April Van Buren said her students posted footage of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s visit to Española on the high school newspaper’s website. Soon after, Van Buren received an e-mail from Talea Miller, an associate editor for the PBS News Hour, offering the class cameras to document the elections.
“I was very impressed by your newspaper students’ writing and the fact that your paper has video featured on it,” Miller wrote in the e-mail. “I thought your class would be a great fit for a new PBS partnership with YouTube … which will look at the health of democracy in America by focusing on issues surrounding voting and attitudes towards voting.”
The class will be expected to film and post online at least 10 videos on that topic. Van Buren said she is expecting the cameras in the mail any day now. Meanwhile, the class has started brainstorming for ideas for the videos.
Junior Anna Becker plans to interview high school students who plan to vote Nov. 4.
“I had heard a lot in the news about how teen voters are expected to have an impact in this election, and how Barack Obama and John McCain are encouraging teens to register and vote, so I thought it would be an interesting topic,” Becker said.
Junior Mariah Galvez wants to know what would happen if the voting age were lowered to 16. She doesn’t think it’s right that adults are deciding for people Galvez’s age.
“(Adults) act sort of as our representatives. But teens care a lot more about the country, more than people think,” Galvez said.