Jan. 27, 2000

Iowa caucus coverage
reaches across the world

By Rachel Seow
Cyber Caucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa—Caucus fever was high right up till the end on Monday night when Iowans gathered to express their choices in the first of the year 2000 presidential elections, and caught the attention of countries all over the world.

With its auditorium chosen as Republican caucus headquarters, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, suddenly found its campus caught in a flurry of media personnel. A few days before the big night, vans and trucks belonging to various networks began to appear, and black cable wires could be seen snaking through the snow all over campus. The American newspapers and TV networks were all there, but so were media from Europe, Asia and Australia.

In Tokyo, Akito Tanaka wrote in an internet interview that almost a week before voting night, he noticed Japanese news stations began broadcasting five minutes of caucus news daily, while caucus updates began appearing in local newspapers such as Nikkei and Yomiuri Shimbun.

Granted, none of the stories was bestowed headline news status, but the fact is that articles on various presidential candidates and events have been appearing in media web sites such as The China Daily and The Strait's Time, Singapore's main newspaper.

Tanaka, a recent graduate of Drake University and a soon-to-be reporter for the Nikkei Shimbun—the leading business and financial newspaper in Japan—admitted his following of the caucuses may not be the consensus of people in Japan so much as a unique interest influenced by his past association with Des Moines and the fact that he was a political science major.

"I think the reason for the extensive international coverage has more to do with this being the start of the voting than because the world is demanding a daily report on every single election that will take place this year," Tanaka wrote.

When Tanaka asked four of his friends—all in their early 20s— about the caucuses, only one was conversant on the subject. All four recognized Republican candidate George W. Bush's name but only because he was the former president's son and so had attracted the attention of the press.

Tanaka predicted that more people will start caring when things begin intensifying towards the end of the election process.

"It isn't that people don't care," said Nancy Tay in a long-distance telephone interview. Tay, a 30-year-old architect, noticed coverage of the caucuses in the newspaper but gave it little attention. "Right now, there are simply a lot more immediate, regional concerns demanding our attention," she said.

Though focus is understandably divided, the rest of the world is being provided information about the year 2000 presidential elections proving that there are people out there besides Americans who will be following the forthcoming political year.

"The American elections are like the Olympics...It happens every four years, and every time it's the same thing, but no one knows what will be the results, so everyone gets excited, right? And the opening of the Olympics is always covered extensively... same thing," Tanaka wrote.