Economic issues, presidential election will be focus on Oct. 17 panel
October 5, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Susan Swain, co-CEO of C-SPAN, will moderate a discussion with national journalists on economic issues and the presidential election at an audience-interactive forum on Oct. 17 at Purdue University.
Charles Blow, columnist for The New York Times, and Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason magazine, will present their views on the economy in a forum titled, "Your Money and Your Life: The Economy, the Election, and You."
The forum will run from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. Seating for the event will begin at 5 p.m. The discussion, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by Project Impact and Future Impact. The public also is invited to attend a pre-forum reception from 4-5 p.m. under the Mural in Stewart Center.
A book signing for Gillespie will follow the event, and copies of "The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America" will be sold by University Bookstore.
The event will be streamed live via webcast that will be available at mms://video1.itap.purdue.edu/ProjectImpact.
"Coming one day after the second presidential debate and just three weeks before an election in which the economy seems foremost in the minds of Americans, this forum should shed light on the ramifications of how we vote," said Ambassador Carolyn Curiel, a clinical professor of communication in the Brian Lamb School of Communication, who founded and directs Project Impact and is the adviser to Future Impact. Curiel also previously served as a senior White House aide, U.S. ambassador and journalist.
Project Impact forums are student planned, and Project Impact is a university-wide initiative focused on experiential learning in partnership with C-SPAN at Purdue and in Washington, D.C. Future Impact is a newly formed student organization that supports the Project Impact mission.
This forum is the latest in Project Impact's yearlong series, "2012: It's Not Just Politics, It's Our Future," which has featured a variety of nationally recognized journalists, historians, issues analysts and social media executives. As with previous forums, this one will begin with an audience poll. Audience members will be asked to use their personal cell phones to key in responses to questions posed by Project Impact students. The panel will take audience questions live and via Twitter.
Blow is the visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He joined The Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the paper's graphics director and in that role, he led the newspaper to a best-of-show award from the Society of News Design for the paper's information graphics coverage of 9/11, the first time the award had been given for graphics coverage. He also served as the art director at National Geographic Magazine.
Nick Gillespie is editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com. He is co-author with his colleague Matt Welch of the 2011 book, "The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America." Gillespie is a two-time finalist for digital National Magazine Awards, one of the "Top 25 Journalists on The Right" according to the Daily Beast, and among Business Insider’s "50 Most Influential Political Pundits Covering the 2012 Election."
Swain is president and co-chief executive officer of C-SPAN, the nation's eighth largest cable television network. She has held this position since March and shares responsibility for all day-to-day operations of the public affairs cable network.
For more than 25 years, Swain has also been an on-air interviewer for C-SPAN. Among other assignments, she is a regular moderator for Washington Journal, C-SPAN's morning call-in/interview program. She has covered seven presidential elections and interviewed hundreds of members of Congress, policy experts and journalists, and several presidents. Her on-air work also has taken her to China, to Saudi Arabia during "Desert Storm," and onboard a nuclear submarine and an aircraft carrier.
News Service contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Source: Carolyn Curiel, curiel@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Journalists interested in speaking to the speakers in advance can request interviews through Project Impact by contacting Carolyn Curiel at curiel@purdue.edu or Elizabeth Dorrance at edorranc@purdue.edu.
