November 1, 2012
Earlier this semester, the Student Activities Office, the Levitt Center, the government department and the Hamilton College Democrats and Republicans sponsored a viewing of the presidential debates in the Sadove Student Center. The purpose of the event was not solely to watch President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney tackle important issues; more importantly, the event encouraged participation, thanks to the use of the interactive smartphone app known as React Labs™.
The app displays a screen upon which participants can express their live reactions to the candidates’ comments by pressing buttons during the debate, such as “agree” or “disagree.” Additionally, participants could argue that the candidates were “spinning” or “dodging” certain topics.
In the Oct. 4 issue of The Spectator earlier this semester discussing the use of React Labs™ at Hamilton College, James S. Sherman Professor of Government Phil Klinkner stated, “First, the novelty of responding to debate via a smartphone app might encourage people to participate who otherwise might not. Second, having the data on how Hamilton students responded to the debate might give us better insight into the attitudes of Hamilton students.”
These hopes were undeniably fulfilled during all three of the presidential debate viewings in Sadove. The smart phone app provided the government department with various statistics of interest regarding students’ party identifications, voting intentions and thoughts about candidates’ stances on certain issues.
The surveys showed that approximately 73 percent of the Hamilton students who participated identified themselves as Democrats, while 22 percent considered themselves to be Republican. Similarly, of those students planning to vote, 75 percent were confident that they would vote for Obama, whereas 18 percent of the students were inclined to vote Romney.
Another interesting feature of the application is that it revealed student responses to the candidate’s respective comments. During the first presidential debate held on Oct. 3, the average participant agreed with President Obama thirteen times but disagreed with him twice. Students additionally believed that he both spun and dodged a topic one time each. For Romney, the participants typically agreed with Romney six times and disagreed eight times. Further, they believed that the candidate spun the issue four times and dodged a topic once.
By the end of the three debates, participating students agreed with Obama 86 times, disagreed 60 times, believed he spun a question 18 times, and thought he dodged issues seven times. Students agreed with Romney 107 times, disagreed with him 61 times, thought he spun an issue 33 times, and dodged a topic 18 times.
In general, those Hamilton students that viewed the Presidential Debates while participating in the React Labs™ experiment were extremely impressed with the program. Sarah Larson, president of the Hamilton Republicans, says, “I thought the app was very innovative…My hope is that the app made people more engaged during the debate rather than overwhelmed and that as a result of their engagement viewers use the debates to challenge their ingrained assumptions about each candidate. Hopefully then voters will be more knowledgeable and confident about their choice in November.”
No comments yet.
Comment Guidelines
Please log in to post a comment