{"id":4325,"date":"2016-03-23T15:26:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/02\/in-the-eye-of-the-media-storm\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T21:21:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T02:21:01","slug":"in-the-eye-of-the-media-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/in-the-eye-of-the-media-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Eye of the Media Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the South Carolina Republican and Democratic primaries have come and gone, there are three members of Furman\u2019s political science department who can finally take a breather.<\/p>\n

In addition to their regular duties of teaching classes and meeting with students, Drs. Jim Guth, Brent Nelsen and Danielle Vinson spent much of February talking to the media about the all-important South Carolina primaries.\u00a0 They talked about everything from which candidate might win the primary to who could attract the evangelical vote to the role that African-American voters would play in the elections.\u00a0 They talked to the local, regional and national media, and they found themselves talking pretty much all day, including the weekends, for three consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Jim

Jim Guth<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt did seem somewhat more hectic than usual, in part because both parties had hotly contested presidential primaries in the same year,\u201d said Guth, one of the nation\u2019s top experts on religion and politics.\u00a0 \u201cThe proliferation of media sources and outlets also played a major role. I probably didn\u2019t talk to many more journalists than in 2008, but that was because I was dividing the work with Brent and Danielle.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there was plenty of work to go around.\u00a0 In addition to handling the customary demands of local and statewide media, Guth, Nelsen and Vinson also spent a good deal of their time answering questions for the national media.<\/p>\n

Between them, the professors were quoted in staff-written stories in The New York Times<\/em>, Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, Boston Globe<\/em>, Dallas Morning News<\/em>, Washington Times<\/em>, USA Today<\/em>, The Economist<\/em>, and Associated Press. There were also interviews with National Public Radio, Voice of America, CNN, PBS NewsHour, CBS Evening News, C-SPAN, and Sirius XM radio.<\/p>\n

\"nelsen\"

Brent Nelsen<\/p><\/div>\n

In all, counting the stories that were circulated to other media through the news cooperatives, the professors\u2019 comments appeared in more than 500 media outlets in the U.S., Canada and Europe during the past three weeks.<\/p>\n

According to Guth, Nelsen and Vinson, the additional work with the media is good for both them and Furman. It helps the professors to stay current in their areas of teaching and research, and their quotes help spread Furman\u2019s name through the far reaching channels of the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extension of teaching,\u201d Vinson said.\u00a0 \u201cInstead of students in the classroom, it\u2019s teaching reporters and their audiences. I study media and politics, so interacting with reporters helps inform my research and teaching on political communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guth agrees.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve always regarded it as part of my job to educate journalists on the role of religion in politics, as this is quite a blind spot in the press,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd the coverage is good for Furman.\u00a0 Over the years, I\u2019ve had quite a few students whose first contact with the institution was through these news channels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Danielle

Danielle Vinson<\/p><\/div>\n

Having Guth, Nelsen and Vinson and their media expertise in Furman\u2019s political science department at the same time is certainly the university\u2019s good fortune.\u00a0 While it\u2019s not unusual for a school of Furman\u2019s size to have qualified professors serve as experts for local and regional media, it is extraordinary to have three professors from a single department who can also satisfy the demands of the national media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually quite fun to have three of us working with the local and national media,\u201d said Nelsen. \u201cWe bring the latest news into the department hallways, often debating our views of current political developments with each other and with students. I also think the students get a big kick out of seeing their professors on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three professors should enjoy their rest while they can.\u00a0 In a few more months, the Republicans and Democrats will have chosen their nominees for President of the United States and it will be time to get really serious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the South Carolina Republican and Democratic primaries have come and gone, there are three members of Furman\u2019s political science department who can finally take a breather. In addition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":15773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6,32,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-in-the-news","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}