NEVADA, Las Vegas, USA (Eagle News) — A unique “interactive watch party” of the first televised presidential debate in the United States was held at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
The students from local middle schools, high schools and colleges participated in the interactive watch party where the viewers from the local schools and the community not only heard what US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had to say, but they also interacted with a couple of polls via twitter posted by the UNLV debate team.
After the polls, there was a question and answer forum where the participants got the opportunity to understand and clarify their thoughts and opinions about the debate.
“Like many Americans, I was interested in seeing the debate and how Clinton and Trump react personally when they’re only a few feet across each other,” said Connor Leeming, a student from Palo Verde High School.
“I feel like this debate has gone really far and that they made some really good points. Some better than others. And some had more facts than others,” said Quashaunna Toledo-Scott, a middle school student who came to the watch party.
The debates are really unique because they offer you a very personal up-front explanation by the candidates themselves about what they believe,” said Matt Gomez, a member of the UNLV debate team.
Dan Smythe, a teacher in Las Vegas, explained that watching and analyzing the US presidential debate was a good mental exercise for the students.
“I want them to be able to support why they are in fact a supporter of one candidate or the other. and maybe why they even changed their support. What are the reasons?” Smythe said.
He said the idea was for the students themselves to provide the resources, the explanations and the facts on why they support a particular candidate or why they changed their support, if ever, after watching the debate.
Jacob Thompson, PhD, the director of the Berman Debate Forum of the UNLV, encouraged the viewers of the debate to be “as open-minded as (they) can.” He said watching the entire presidential debate is always a good idea.
“My first piece of advice is to stay tuned and watch all of the debates. Because different things will be talked about. It won’t be the same show, just repeated. People ought to try to suspend their personal beliefs and biases to some degree. Try and be as open-minded as you can to really try to understand the nuances of the policy arguments that are happening in the debate,” he said.
He also advised the participants to take notes and then go over these notes to have a better assessment of the debates once it’s all over.
UNLV will continue to hold watch events for the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates. It will wrap up the series by hosting the final presidential debate live at the UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center on October 19, 2016. This will be the final presidential debate prior to the US presidential elections in November.
(Reporting by Julie Ann Docena, Eagle News Service Las Vegas bureau)
