The Associated Student (AS) elections this April may be accompanied with a sponsored media contest designed to educate and advise student voters.
Voter-Funded Media is a contest where different media groups open to businesses, campus publications and students compete to advise student voters on election candidates and information, said Western junior and Elections Coordinator Ben Murphy.
The different media groups use tactics such as creating a separate publication or using a Web blog. The contest is used to create more educated and informed voters through advisors paid by public funds or sponsorship money, he said.
“I think they will find it an interesting concept, and it will kick start more discussion on campus issues,” Murphy said.
Murphy was asked to look into Voter-Funded Media by AS President Ramiro Espinoza. Murphy presented his research and ideas on the contest to AS Board members Nov. 28 at the AS board meeting.
Election voters determine the winners of the contest by answering an additional question on the ballot concerning their favorite media group that participated, Murphy said. The top placing media groups each take a percentage of the prize pool. The first place winner receives the highest percentage.
The prize pool comes from sponsorship money, which was donated by Mark Latham, creator of Voter-Funded Media, to the University of British Columbia (UBC) when it held the first trial run of the contest in January 2007, Murphy said.
The first place media group, a student-run publication called The Underground Newspaper, won a $1,500 section of the prize pool at UBC last year, he said. Other media groups created Web sites and videos to advise voters.
Latham will sponsor the event at Western this year if the AS Board decides to implement the program, Murphy said.
Latham created the idea of Voter-Funded Media 19 years ago and has worked with the idea for more than 11 years, he said.
He said it is important to start the contest at Western before the elections, in order to get more coverage and a response from voters.
The sooner Western decides to use the program, the more money he will sponsor it with, Latham said. If Western begins the contest by Feb. 15, it will donate $3,000, and if they begin by Jan. 11, he will give $4,000.
Latham said he will advise Western throughout the contest, as he did the UBC Voter-Funded Media committee last year.
“It’s free money for stimulating the media and helping the political process, as well as improving the connection between the board and the students,” Latham said.
Matt Naylor, UBC junior and chair of the Voter-Funded Media committee this year, said last year’s event informed student voters, though it did not increase voter turnout because the contest began too close to the elections.
Naylor was a candidate in the election when Voter-Funded Media was implemented at UBC in January 2007, he said.
“It’s a fantastic program that helps create a diversity of opinions on campus,” he said. “These elections do matter. The Student Union provides really valuable services and it does matter who’s going to run the Student Union.”
Naylor said he believes there is a chance Voter-Funded Media will result in an increased voter turnout this year.
AS President Ramiro Espinoza said he is interested in the program, though he still has questions and feels the details needed to be sorted out before Voter-Funded Media transforms from an idea to a plan. The contest will be a learning opportunity for students who are interested in the media, and it will bring more focus and attention to the elections, he said.
“I am interested in seeing on what we will get out of it, though I am reasonably cautious about the different political dynamics,” Espinoza said. “Our student government is very strong. We have so much ability to do things for students that haven’t been clouded by politics, and as soon as you start politicizing an issue, it can become a lot more ruthless.”
Murphy said the program should not have any required approach for the different media groups, and wants to use a format similar to that of UBC’s, though some changes might be made to accommodate to Western’s student government structure.
Murphy will be working with three AS Board members to come up with a set of recommendations on an entree fee, specifics on who can enter the contest and a selected sponsor before Voter-Funded Media can be voted on by the board, he said.
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