Learning the 'rules of the road' for the 2012 election

Hundreds of students packed the Pegasus Ballroom on Monday at 8 a.m. to see keynote speakers hosted by the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government's "Campaign 2012: New Rules of the Road?" presentation.

The presentation was held to engage young voters through politics in social media outlets. Middle and High school students from around Florida were in attendance, as well as UCF staff and students.

The Lou Frey Institute is a nonpartisan organization that promotes the development of responsible, actively engaged citizens. It accomplishes this mission through civic education programming through debate and discussion about politics and government. The founder of The Lou Frey Institute, the honorable Lou Frey, represented Florida in Congress from 1969 to 1979. Civic education and encouraging young people to be involved in their government is his mission.

The presentation was broken up into sections with different panels of speakers and topics. Presentations lasted around 20 minutes and were concluded by questions from the audience.

Christie Morrell, a freshman, attended the symposium.

"I found the speakers very influential in changing my attitude toward social networking as a political tool. It really can be wielded as a tool for anyone interested in politics, not just in the presidential campaign," she said.

Keynote speakers included Google's account executive for elections, Andrew Roos; CEO of eVoter Inc., Adam Kravitz; and senior fellow in governance studies with The Brookings Institution, Thomas Mann.

Roos started the presentation off as the first keynote speaker. He explained the dynamics of a campaign being won through social media, as in the 2008 presidential campaign. Mobilizing the youth of America through social networking sites helped Obama win the election by stimulating the nation's youngest voters.

"Online engagement helps voter turnout," Roos said.

Diana Owen, associate professor of political science and director of American studies at Georgetown University, explained the do's and don'ts of political campaigning. She explained the old way of stimulating a successful campaign -- through television. The new wave of campaigning has no established norms and now includes the "24-hour news cycle."

The multi-layered environment online includes formal and informal channels of political engagement and involves everyone, from commentary and bias opinions, to actual facts. It helps people of all backgrounds and age differences to talk together about government ideas and policies.

New engaging ideas were discussed throughout the symposium, including a proposed electronic primary for candidates. Everything was digitally based, including the welcome booklet in the shape of Apple's iPod that included "apps" such as "Big money for presidency" and "Republican and Democrat."

Sponsors for the symposium included the UCF Department of Political Science, UCF's College of Sciences, the UCF Foundation, the United States Association of Former Members of Congress, the Flemming Foundation, and many others.

This is the symposium's 8th year being hosted at UCF and its 18th year in function. About 15,000 students will tune into the broadcast online. The full symposium can be found online at www.loufrey.org.