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The Golden Gate Bridge is more than twice as long as the longest bridge in Zurich. |
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Conference Report
On Dec 2nd, the Conference 'Information society, media and democracy' was held at the premises of swissnex in San Francisco. Sponsored by the SFZH Initiative some 18 speakers from Stanford University and the University of Zurich addressed the audience on the various subjects. The whole-day conference was opened by Josef Trappel, who laid out the agenda of the day. Different concepts of the interplay between mass media and democracy in California and in Switzerland were to be discussed to learn from each other's practice. The former US-Ambassador to Switzerland, Dick Fredericks, showed evidence of the importance of media coverage to the 2004 presidential elections in the U.S. Several other speakers underlined the role the media play in informing the public on political issues. One instrument to enhance political information is "deliberative polling", as presented by Prof. Fishkin from Stanford. Prof. Heinz Bonfadelli from Zurich showed a considerable difference in political knowledge between young people in Switzerland and in the Bay Area. A recent comparative showed that Swiss youth is better informed about national an international politics than their counterparts in the Bay area.
A vivid discussion followed the final presentations of Phil Taubman, New York Times, and Jon Sawyer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They gave insights about the day-to-day hassle for journalists trying to catch-up with pre-electorate campaigning.
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