VoterWatch has done an interesting analysis and enumeration of which hearings C-SPAN has broadcast and which it has not. It found that C-SPAN covered 28% of all committee hearings held during the week of February 4-10, 2008.
- C-SPAN Analysis: What Are We Missing?, by Billy Hallowell, VoterWatch, April 4, 2008. (5/25/14 link updated to archived page at Internet Archive) Hallowell notes that:
Since our primary interest is in creating a video record of what occurs in House and Senate meetings, access to footage is paramount. Unfortunately (and as many of you know), our government doesn’t offer adequate access to video, audio, and transcripts, as the quality and availability of these items greatly differ among committees.
Since C-SPAN is the main hub for Congressional footage, we decided to examine one week of network coverage to see exactly what the C-SPAN channels are covering—and what they’re not. While we are not attempting to fault C-SPAN for missing hearings (after all, covering all of the committees is an arduous and expensive task), we think it’s important to understand what we’re not seeing.
Documents librarians will want to know that Bernadine E. Abbott Hoduski is on the Board of VoterWatch and FGI’s own Shinjoung Yeo is on the Advisory Board.
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