Massachusetts voters have spoken. Republican Scott Brown now sits where Democrats have sat for over half a century. Chris Cillizza, writer of The Washington Post’s political blog, “The Fix,” is not surprised.
“To quote Jane’s Addiction…‘There’s nothing shocking, really, anymore’,” said Cillizza, as he discussed Martha Coakley’s loss in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, 2010.
Cillizza joined students from George Mason University, the University of Denver and Pace University on Thursday, Jan. 21 during a distance learning course produced by C-SPAN. This video conference allows students to interview guests alongside Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks.
Cillizza discussed not only the Massachusetts campaign but also took questions from students at each of the schools as well.
“How would you compare writing for your web blog and other online publications in your career to writing for print publications,” asked Mason Communication major Andrew Knight, “and what kinds of differences are there in the approach you take for writing in these different outlets?”
“When I started doing ‘The Fix’ about four years ago it was very different,” said Cillizza. “I would write something for [it] and an editor would come up to me and say ‘hey, could you ‘storify’ this for the newspaper?’ People want a little more personality.”
Now, greater numbers of newspapers are understanding the idea that they need to connect with readers and not simply talk at them.
One Denver student, Marcy, suggested that Scott Brown’s Cosmopolitan centerfold spread may have even helped him during the campaign.
“It might have worked for him,” said Marcy, “There might have been people, women especially, that might have voted for him because he looked so good.”
Many people, including this writer, would agree.
The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/Distance_Learning/).