Elizabeth Skewes, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will analyze this year聮s large field of presidential primaries and caucuses during a Feb. 5 television-viewing event on campus.
The viewing and talk, which will be free and open to the public, will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Room 250 of Eaton Humanities, located on the northeast side of the Norlin quadrangle at CU-Boulder. Some 20 states 聳 including Colorado 聳 will hold caucuses or primaries on Feb. 5, also known as 聯Super Tuesday.聰
Skewes will answer questions and encourage public analysis of election results as they come in. She also will discuss fieldwork she conducted at the recent New Hampshire primary.
Author of the recently published 聯Message Control: How News is Made on the Presidential Campaign Trail,聰 Skewes teaches news writing, research methods, political communication and media ethics at the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
聯I will talk a bit about the book, but probably will end up also talking about the current campaign and the very weird 聳 and in my opinion 聳 problematic, front-loaded primary system this year,聰 Skewes said.
Skewes聮 book examines how the national news media cover modern presidential elections amid increasing message control aimed at the electorate, deep partisan divisions, public backlash over campaign mudslinging and the emergence of blogs, citizen journalism and other new media. Her goal was to take a big-picture, academic look at the forces that shape the national news media's coverage of presidential elections and whether those efforts serve the public interest, she said.
For her book, Skewes interviewed 22 of the nation聮s top political reporters who covered the 2004 presidential election and several campaign managers. She said no one involved in the campaign process is satisfied with it 聳 journalists, campaign managers or even candidates.
Despite such feedback, results always seem to be the same. Too often, the public sees only caricatures of presidential candidates because the national press corps is denied access or receives tightly controlled, self-serving messages, she said.
聯Media coverage is how the public gets to know candidates, so I think it really matters,聰 she said.
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