Will Young Voters Engage in Higher Numbers Next Year?

The fall 2007 semester Politics and the Media class, taught by Jane Hall, associate professor of journalism, met with Jon Cohen, polling director for The Washington Post, for initial discussions on the project and for guidance scripting questions. Working in consultation with AU professor Dotty Lynch, executive-in-residence in the School of Communication and political consultant for CBS News, and Maria Ivancin, assistant professor of public communication and expert on survey research, Hall's students spent several weeks identifying issues of interest to students and crafting their questions for their online interviews.

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The students looked at the issues prominent in the media and their personal experiences with politics to choose the questions for the survey. Students examined polls by The Washington Post and other news organizations in creating their questions. A series of questions about national security versus privacy was drawn from a Harris poll on the subject.

Students were interviewed online via e-mail and a Web-based survey application. A total of 150 students were contacted, with 108 responding. Each of the 25 members of the politics and media class was responsible for choosing and distributing the survey to six students. The panel, ages 18-24, was chosen with measures taken to be roughly proportionate to the 2004 census of college students in regards to ethnicity, gender and geographic region. The panel came from more than 75 U.S. colleges and universities, from California to Vermont and all major regions in between.

The survey was not designed to be representative of the opinions of all college students, and the results are not generalizable beyond the 108 students interviewed.

Of the 89 students who answered the question about gender, 43 were female and 45 were male. The regional breakdown of respondents overall was: Northeast, 26 (24 percent); Southeast, 17 (16 percent); Midwest, 23 (21 percent); Southwest, 6 (6 percent), West, 12 (11 percent); International, 2 (2 percent); None or did not respond, 22 (20 percent). Of the 92 students who indicated their ethnicity, the breakdown was: White, 76 percent; hispanic, 8 percent; African American, 4 percent; Asian, 8 percent; Other, 4 percent.

Students in Professor Hall's class analyzed the results and wrote these stories about their survey.

The Issues

Survey respondents ranked the war in Iraq as the most important issue facing both the country and themselves personally. When asked "In your opinion, what are the two most important issues facing the United States today?" students largely responded Iraq and the war, which received about 42 percent of responses.

Next, students were asked, "In your opinion, what are the two most important issues in politics facing you personally today?" The results were varied over more responses than the previous question, but again Iraq and the war received the highest number, about 12 percent. Education tied for the most important issue, also receiving about 12 percent.

The respondents recognized the large effect the Iraq war will have on their generation.

"I feel that the biggest effect the war in Iraq has had on our generation is that we have gained perspective on what people really think of America," said Matthew Rutkowski, a senior at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. "I feel that many of us know we are not seen as the greatest country in the world anymore, and for some of us, we are humbled by this."

Many respondents said they do not think their generation fully understands the impact of the war, whether it is thinking apathetically about the war or feeling above it.

"[We have] a certain numbness towards war. We live now in a day and age in which we receive news of casualties with, no pun intended, a casual manner," said Michael Sullivan, a freshman at Benedictine College. "People, innocent or not, are being killed every single day. And we are trained to be numb to it. It only contributes to an ever-decreasing respect for life."