Election coverage was very different depending on which source of news one turned to last week during the United States Senate election in Massachusetts. For example, local news websites such as thebostonchannel.com and masslive.com were reporting live up to the minute reports on the percentages of all the candidates as well as the percentage of precincts reporting from around the state. National coverage was not nearly as specific as the local coverage was, but that’s what is expected.
What I found especially interesting was the differences between the national and local coverage and reaction to Scott Brown’s victory. Obviously as is to be expected there were a variety of reactions to Brown’s win. It was interesting to watch how the national media responded to the victory. These media outlets immediately began running stories about how Brown’s victory was about to change the outlook of the country for the duration of his term in office. This is certainly a valid topic to discuss. Local news programs focused their attention toward how Brown’s victory would change the landscape of politics in Massachusetts. Personally I felt like this was the more important of the two because (being a resident of Massachusetts) policies within this state which directly affect me take more of a precedent in my life than many national issues though. This is not to say however that national laws and policies don’t affect me, but sometimes they get thrown to the back seat in terms of importance level in my everyday life.
Watching the various reports come in from all around the country was quite the experience. Clearly it was not the most amazing thing to ever happen, but it was (in a way) cool to see that media corporations focused their attention on what was happening on our door step. For that brief segment of time our votes and our opinions were some of the most important news in this country. Funny how something you thought only impacted you could impact people across the country.
