C-SPAN Is A Lot Cooler than You Think!

 C-SPAN’s website is indisputably overwhelming. Small thumbnails and scrunched-up text crowd its homepage and paralyze its users. But don’t let C-SPAN’s less-than-perfect website deter you; an entire world is to be found within its pages. 

  The growing popularity of cable television in the mid-to-late twentieth century launched C-SPAN (short for “Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network”) from the mind of Brain Lamb, a journalist, into the average American household. Despite expanding over the forty-six years of its existence, the service has remained faithful to its founding purpose: broadcasting Congressional proceedings. Many praise its unbiased manner of disseminating information about the federal government. But nothing as big as C-SPAN is without its critics, who argue that its service incentivizes politicians to grandstand at the expense of getting “real work” done for their constituents. Even so, C-SPAN’s website is a wonderful place to wander around. 

  Upon clicking “Congress” on the homepage’s upper right-hand corner, a user finds themselves face-to-face with live recordings of the Senate and House chamber. Most of the time, nobody is speaking, and nothing is happening. Push through the lull, and you will occasionally find yourself in a front-row seat to the unexpectedly powerful: members engaging in thoughtful and calm debate about the omnibus; a representative delivering a well-articulated speech about the war in Ukraine, the economy, a nominee; a mass of senators filling the aisles and conversing in huddles during a vote. 

  As with any activity, the true fruits of your labor may only be realized after a prolonged period of time. Observing the chambers will grant you the ability to come to your own conclusions about the legislative branch. Maybe you will approve of some rules and not of others. Perhaps the seeming unproductivity of the chambers will dismay you or delight you. A speech might inspire you to email or call your own representatives’ offices to persuade them to vote a certain way on an upcoming bill. But most importantly, you will have gained a bedrock of information from which you can learn more and have fun doing so.

  Becoming passionate about an area of study can be difficult, but a general rule of thumb is that context is key to interest. Maybe you don’t want to dive into the public policies that Congress is mulling over, and that is okay. But you can still find a home in C-SPAN and the like.

With a pocket of free time, try Wikipedia-ing Congress’s more quirky traditions (e.g. the Senate’s “candy desk”). Learn about the chambers’ architectural features through the Architect of the Capitol’s website. Log into the Congressional Chronicle right before the Senate convenes to listen to Chaplain Barry Black’s invocations. Poke around your senators’ and representatives’ websites. Take a break with Roll Call’s “Congressional Hits and Misses.” Ingest bite-sized pieces of information through Politico’s Congress Minutes. Throughout, don’t be afraid of falling down a rabbit hole. That rabbit hole could spiral into something far more expansive and interesting than you initially realize.