DOWNLOAD VIDEO
As midterm elections drew to a close on Tuesday, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs
focused
on young voters—a demographic that so many politicians try, but often fail, to successfully attract.
Student Reporting Labs asked youth in Kentucky, Michigan and Colorado, all states that had hotly contested Senate races, to react to political ads aimed at winning their vote.
Students were unimpressed. They called the ads unhelpful and unclear.
“This has not, like, helped me to choose who I want to vote for at all,” Deazsa Price, a student at Pleasure Ridge Park High School, said.
Students especially found attack ads useless. Georgie Abby, a student at Royal Oak High School, said she would “tune out” ads that only focus on a candidate’s opponent and preferred to listen to candidates propose solutions to problems.
“You should talk about the things that you can do to help other people,” she said.
Today’s young people are disenchanted with the political process, explained Jan Leighley, a political science professor at American University.
“They are coming of age where they see a politics of polarization and personalization, and a lot of big problems, and a perception of gridlock, and…the government not doing its job. And they don’t want to engage,” she said.
This distrust, combined with all the different news options available online, encourages students to curate their own information.
“I think the real way to choose who you vote for is to do your own research,” Robert Wilson, a student at Royal Oak High School, said.
Young voters, though important to elections, typically turn out to vote in lower numbers than the general electorate, especially during non-presidential elections. In 2010, 24 percent of voters ages 18-29
participated
in the election. The same group made up only 13 percent of the votes cast in this week’s midterms,
according
to CNN exit poll results.
Warm up questions
- Did you vote yesterday, or would you have if you were old enough? Explain why or why not?
- Far fewer people turnout to vote in midterm elections compared to presidential elections, why do you think this is?
- What kind of advertising do you see during the course of a week? Did you see any political ads this fall?
Critical thinking questions
- Referring to political ads, Daezsa Price said, “This has not, like, helped me to choose who I want to vote for at all.” If political ads don’t help you choose who to vote for, then what does? Explain your answer?
- Jan Leighley is a professor at American University who studies voter turnout and motivation. What do you think she specifically does for her job? Who would she talk to? How would she find out more about voter turnout and what motivates people to vote or vote the way they do?
- Professor Leighley said, "The argument is that people young people might not be voting as much as older people, but they in fact are engaged and committed and a fine generation politically. It’s just that they’re expressing their politics using different methods or means." Why do you think so few young people vote in elections compared to older Americans? What might make young people more active politically, including voting?
