Students Joining Media Circus

Students in the Kennedy School of Government course "Public Policy, the Press, Public Opinion, and the 1996 Presidential Primary" themselves became a part of New Hampshire primary coverage yesterday.

Last night, the CBS Evening News aired an "Eye on America" feature segment about the course's field trip to New Hampshire last Tuesday.

The class spent the day on a bus, attending speeches and publicity events related to today's primary. The students watched Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) address the state legislature in Concord and visited Clinton state campaign headquarters and WMUR-TV, Manchester's ABC affiliate and the state's only television station.

They also attended a panel discussion of political journalists on primary coverage.

The trip's purpose was to expose the approximately 45 members of the class, drawn from both the Kennedy School and the College, to the true atmosphere of the primary, according Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy Maxine Isaacs, the course's instructor.

"I had decided that we could talk about the primaries in the classroom forever and never convey the oddness of the New Hampshire primary, which is like somebody's living room and a national circus," she said in a telephone interview last night.

George T. Osterkamp, the segment's producer, said he got the idea for the piece from Dayton Duncan, an author who has written about the New Hampshire primary. Dayton, a friend of Isaacs', had planned to go with the class on their field trip.

"Our interest was originally in [Dayton]," Osterkamp said. "He mentioned the class and we thought it would be a good place to see him in action."

The students made such a good piece that Dayton was not mentioned in last night's three-and-a-half-minute segment. He will, however, probably appear on tonight's program, Osterkamp said.