4:30 p.m., April 16, 2009----Dozens of students and Newark residents got a glimpse of the mobile production facilities inside the C-SPAN Civics Bus when the 45-foot mobile production studio opened for public tours outside the Trabant University Center on Wednesday, April 15.

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The visitors learned about the resources C-SPAN offers, including the network's education Web site, C-SPAN Classroom, a free membership service for educators with downloadable video clips; the C-SPAN Video Library; and C-SPAN's coverage of the Obama administration.

“We really try to be unobtrusive as possible when we cover events, so people can form their own opinions rather than have commentators,” said Rodee Schneider, a C-SPAN marketing representative who was explaining the capability of the equipment on the bus.

Brittany Talarico, a senior English major from Oakhurst, N.J., said she was drawn to the bus because she has enjoys watching hours of C-SPAN every day.

“I wanted to learn a little bit more about C-SPAN networks to further my knowledge,” said Talarico, who also wrote about the visit for her convergence journalism class.

Cynthia Bai, a freshman at Newark High School in Newark, Del., briefly toured the bus with her father, Xinhua Bai, associate scientist in the University of Delaware's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

“It's a really fancy bus,” Bai said. “I like C-SPAN. It's educational.”

This year marks the 16th year on the road for the C-SPAN Civics Bus, which now features a new exterior design wrap and an interior with the latest television production equipment. Its current "100 Schools/100 Days" national tour is marking the first 100 days of the new administration.

In addition to the stop at UD, the bus visited the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington. Comcast is sponsoring the C-SPAN Civic Bus visit to the region.

C-SPAN, the political network of record, was created in 1979 by America's cable companies as a public service. C-SPAN is currently available in 90 million households, C-SPAN2 in 82 million households and C-SPAN3 in more than 13 million households nationwide.

Article by Martin A Mbugua
Photo by Evan Krape