Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

While my classmates were swept up in the throngs in Times Square Tuesday night, I was huddled around a woodstove and a radio with a gathering of Democrats in Alaska to hear the election returns. Everyone had watched President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech on TV just moments earlier and were exhilarated and tearful…and turning their hopes to the statewide returns, which came rolling in shortly thereafter.

But things didn’t turn out as the Alaska Dems had hoped. The challengers to Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens didn’t generate enough votes to beat these longtime Republican leaders, even with the incumbents facing corruption scandals.

As New York transplant Jane Eidler said, “I’ve been living in Alaska for 33 years, and they have been my representatives.”  It seems that the risk of choosing new leadership was too great for a state that relies so heavily on federal dollars – money that Young and Stevens have reliably funneled into the state for years.

Although absentee votes may tip the race in favor of Sen. Steven’s challenger Mark Begich, it seems unlikely. And if Stevens’ felony convictions do force him out of his post, it’s likely that the appointee to his position will be a similar hard-line Republican – perhaps even Governor Palin herself.

Many voters and journalists spoke to me this week about how the Alaska media have done a terrible job of being the watchdogs of their own government. A lot of information about Sen. Stevens, Rep. Young and Gov. Palin came to Alaskans from national media – after the stories became too big to ignore. For many Alaskans, this election shows what aspiring leaders are really up against – a largely uninformed public, complacent about the current state of the state. It will be a challenge to Alaskan reporters to rise to the occasion and take the political risk to uncover corruption.

Now that elections are over and Palin is returning home, I wonder if the 49th state is in danger of fading back into the fringes of the American consciousness again – or if Alaska will seem more relevant now to the rest of the nation. And I wonder whether Obama’s promised tide of change will be strong enough to reach Alaska’s shores.