January 2005 marks the beginning of the Georgia legislative session for the new year and Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) wants to help you and your students stay on top of the latest news. For more than 30 years, GPB has aired Lawmakers over Georgia Public Television, offering all Georgia residents the most up-to-date information about the goings on in the capitol building. Lawmakers serves more than just a general audience, though; in fact, the up-close view of Georgia lawmakers that this program affords is very well suited to students in both the 11th and 12th grades. Advanced Placement students especially might find the information in Lawmakers to be useful.
Presented in a news-style format, Lawmakers weaves live footage from the House and Senate floors, interviews with policy makers, citizen reactions, and newsroom discussion together into a complete hour of current events education. Since Lawmakers airs every evening throughout the legislative session, it offers your students the most up-to-the-minute and in-depth coverage of state legislative activity. This program would prove most beneficial in specialized courses on government and policy as it demands a certain amount of knowledgeability about legislative terminology and current legislation.
In addition to airing weekdays from 7-7:30 on both Channel 400 and Channel 420, Lawmakers is now streamed live online at www.gpb.org. All shows for the upcoming legislative session will be archived online. This technology will allow students to call the video programs up on demand by date, making detailed information about legislative events available 24 hours a day. You may also watch the entire legislative session each day LIVE online. The Lawmakers website offers several links to other Internet sites that your students will find useful for exploring state government.
Take a moment to watch an episode of Lawmakers and discover how much GPB has to share with your students. Ask your media specialist to record Lawmakers for your class everyday or make special arrangements to record the show on days when key pieces of legislation are being discussed.
