Kentland Rotary April 30 C-SPAN Robert Browing

Robert Browning, associate professor of political science and communication and director of C-SPAN Archives was the guest program at the Kentland Rotary Club.  According to the Purdue website, Robert Browning, associate professor of political science and communication, began teaching at Purdue in 1981, his father, a C-SPAN enthusiast, urged him to watch the coverage, saying it would benefit the courses he taught. Years later, after a chance meeting with C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb and a discussion about the useful resources C-SPAN could provide and  thus Browning became the founding director of C-SPAN Archives, which is housed in Purdue Research Park.

Mr. Browning began by sharing the history of C-SPAN which is an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, and how it first came to rural America because it was received in homes via satellite which was not common in urban areas.  The cable channel is non-partisan and broadcasts a live feed from the floor of Congress.  This novel idea of broadcasting speeches was promoted by Newt Gingrich in the early 1980’s as a way to get the minority’s opinion to the public. The cameras are owned by the legislative bodies and C-SPAN receives the feed and broadcasts to the nation. Most people don’t realize that most of the Senators and House of Representative members are usually in committee meetings and not present in the chamber.   Thus the cameras always focus on the speaker and the viewing public must understand that there are few people present and that the Representative or Senator is speaking mainly to the camera.  Members of Congress return to vote and check the board to see how their allies voted before casting their vote.  Aides are viewing the proceedings on the floor from their offices and can notify Senators or Representatives that a vote is near or it is their turn for a speech.

This novel idea of broadcasting speeches was promoted by Newt Gingrich in the early 1980’s as a way to get the minority’s opinion to the public.

 Purdue became involved because Brian Lamb, C-SPAN founder challenged Purdue staff to archive the proceedings and Robert Browning began developing the archiving process.  The actual media is no longer housed at Purdue but is still available.  C-SPAN and the archiving process has eliminated the opportunity for the members of Congress to edit their speeches to eliminate mistakes.  That was a common practice prior to the live coverage and archiving of the video.  Assistant Professor Browning was the guest of Brandt Stum.