By Autumn Labbe-Renault, Executive Director
Published originally in The Davis Enterprise, Sept. 30, 2012
Seems just yesterday it was June and I was writing about election coverage. Though the importance of Nov. 6 is known nationally, I’m focused closer to home.
I’ve just finished fielding several comments regarding a post I made recently on a national listserve, wherein I talked about the connection between local election coverage and community development. By focusing on voter education programming, Davis Media Access (DMA) strives to illuminate community issues and provide access to non-partisan information.
Getting information out about campaigns and ballot issues shouldn't be fraught with barriers. Air time is expensive and barring sensation, local politics are largely ignored by commercial broadcast media. DMA takes seriously our role in providing access to candidates, information for voters, and in documenting our community's history around local campaigns
“Meet the Candidates” is a container for much of this work. It’s the one place each season where candidates have a chance to address the voters without gatekeeper, and without questions being put to them. This cycle, we’re producing “Meet the Candidates” segments for the Congressional 3rd District race; Assembly 4th District; DJUSD Board of Trustees; and Measure E.
We just partnered with the Davis Vanguard to co-host a school board candidate forum, held at Harper Junior High on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. A link to that forum is here. Both DMA and the Vanguard are non-profits and neither endorses candidates, but view the upcoming election as important to the community, and hope to provide more information to community members as the election draws near. We thank the Vanguard for its partnership, and you can get more info about them here.
In addition, we are partnering with the Davis League of Women Voters, which plans a school board candidate debate on Oct. 5 and a debate on the ballot initiatives here in DMA’s studio (date TBA). DMA has a long-standing partnership with the City of Davis’s Media Services, which records a variety of community forums and debates held in Community Chambers. We obtain the recorded programs and air each multiple times on all the media outlets described below.
DMA will also record a debate on Prop. 37, mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods, on Oct. 21 from 4-6 p.m. at Monticello Bistro.
DMA will air the forums and other election programming on DCTV Channel 15 on Comcast; on AT&T’s U-verse service at Menu 99; on KDRT 95.7 FM (candidate statements only), and hosts the videos on demand at http://dctv.davismedia.org. Candidates are also given an embed code and are free to use the segment on their websites.