White House reporter to kick off inaugural Center for C-SPAN Conversation

Note to Journalists: Reporters interested in interviewing Susan Page should contact Joseph Paul at 765-494-9541 or paul102@purdue.edu.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Veteran White House reporter Susan Page is speaking at Purdue University on April 4 as part of a new Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement event.

Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today, will join C-SPAN founder and Purdue alumnus Brian Lamb to discuss the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the current state of American journalism and the upcoming fall congressional elections. Both speakers will field questions from the audience. The “Center for C-SPAN Conversation” will be 6:30 p.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union North Ballroom, and a reception precedes at 5 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Page has covered six White House administrations and 10 presidential elections. Her work is printed nationally as well as locally in the Lafayette Journal & Courier. In addition to her award-winning writing, she appears regularly on television and radio talk shows as an analyst.

“Susan Page is the perfect guest to come to campus at this time,” said Robert X. Browning, the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement’s director and a professor of communication and political science. “Her long history covering the White House will give us a unique insight into current politics as well as a great preview of the fall congressional elections.”

Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts and the Brian Lamb School of Communication announced the establishment of the Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement in 2017 as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the C-SPAN Archives. The center works to make the archives more accessible to Purdue faculty and students and to expand the utilization of the resource in research and teaching. It will work with educators of various grades to use the vast resources of the C-SPAN Archives in the classroom. 

The archives, founded in 1987 and located in the Purdue Research Park, is considered one of the most comprehensive video archives of governmental and political content.  It consists of more than 235,000 hours of recorded, indexed, and archived primary source video of C-SPAN programming, making it available for anyone who wants to better understand the democratic process and government.

Brian Lamb earned his bachelor’s degree in speech in 1963 and received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1986. He founded C-SPAN — Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network — in 1977 as a way to show the proceeding of the U.S. House of Representatives to the American people. Today, there are three C-SPAN networks covering both the House and the U.S. Senate as well as congressional hearings, the White House, and major speeches. Lamb is executive chairman of C-SPAN and Purdue’s School of Communication is named for him. 

Related Web sites:

Purdue announces new center for C-SPAN research: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2017/Q4/purdue-announces-new-center-for-c-span-research.html

Writer: Olivia Crouse, ocrouse@purdue.edu

Media Contact: Joe Paul, paul102@purdue.edu

Source: Connie Doebele, managing director of Center for C-SPAN Scholarship and Engagement, cdoebele@purdue.edu