Watching a Public Relations Catastrophe for Policy Debate

They say that no publicity is bad publicity, but I am not sure that is true. An event from last March is now rising to the surface of the global media, and I am not sure it is a good thing.

Two policy debate coaches had a row after the quarterfinal round at the CEDA National Debate Tournament. There was shouting, profanity and finally one coach dropped his pants to the room (although the underwear stayed up). The event was videotaped and then recently posted on YouTube.

Here are some points to remember about this story:

• Many of the reports are highly inaccurate and downright wrong, so be careful reading
• The video leaves out the context of the situation and how it developed
• Many of the stories are using the event to promote their own agenda, whatever it is: racial, anti-intellectual, voyeour, anti-debate, anti-youth, anti-university, etc.
• The two people most involved, I am told, have made up and moved on

It has gone viral. When I woke up Friday morning there were 282 stories. An hour later there were 288 stories. Ten minutes later 290 stories. Many of the stories are by the AP's Maria Sudekum Fisher. And so it goes.

Both universities are now investigating the situation. I will report on that when it comes down.

I am not going to try and fill in details or take sides or make judgments. There is too much of that already. What I want to report on is the emerging media storm and how it influences debate, especially in the United States.

If you want to see all the sources, go to
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1236737470&hl=en&scoring=d

Now the count is 362 stories.

Back to Regular Programming After Some Slow Weeks

Posing with the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas

It has been a rough few weeks for publishing GLOBAL DEBATE and my other debate related blogs.

• On May 1 I headed off to Bangladesh for two weeks. Lots of work, tabbing the 15th All Asians, doing workshops, etc. Little time to post from there.
• 3.2 weeks in Mexico followed that. Sometimes I had Internet access (thanks Bob and Clint) other times I did not. Got some stuff posted, but not enough.
• 10 days in Las Vegas being director of operations for the largest speech and debate tournament in the world (5500 people). I thought I would have time to post from there, but the absolute firewalls at most of the schools where I was based, the temporary collapse of the wireless network at our hotel, hanging out with like-minded celebrities (like the Blue Man Group above) and the busy nature of the tournament kept me from posting much.

So, now I am back in Vermont for the rest of the summer. Look for me to catch up and expand.

Keep reading.

Global Debate Traffic Goes Up Again

Encouraging. The bump in traffic during December and January were predictable because of the live news from WUDC in Thailand, but the fall in February was not that much. Now, in March, traffic is up again. We are making good progress as new people learn about the site and then come back to check it out on a regular basis.

http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com

WUDC User Bump Has Some Sticking Power

The Global Debate website (http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/) got a huge user bump in December and January as it reported live from the World Universities Debating Championship in Thailand. This inflated user figures for December and January. However, it seems as if many of those who discovered Global Debate during that time have continued to visit the site for debate news long after the WUDC news is gone.

The user numbers for February (no WUDC news there) have been as high as user numbers in December which were swelled by WUDC information seekers.

It seems as if Global Debate is making progress in becoming a news staple for the global debate community. Thanks for your suport and we will continue to do our best to find the best debate news and share it.

Huge Traffic Increase Begins 2008

The fact that Global Debate was closely covering the World Universities Debating Championship certainly led to a big increase in site visits. There was also a big increase in comments and even arguments among the commenters and with me. This blogspot site began in late July of 2007, so we are making progress.

I hope that in the year to come that people will remember that this is a spot for debating news all year long and that they can keep up on lots of issues and formats here.

Trevor Sather of the World Schools Debating Championship has also put together a "blog aggregator" for WSDC folks to use and features us prominently. Find it at http://www.schoolsdebate.com/feeds/
I plan to cover the WSDC in September quite closely from Washington, DC as well.

Plans for 2008 include regular editorials (they might even launch a few controversies) and don't forget that a dozen new debate videos from WUPID in Malaysia and WUDC in Thailand will be coming your way soon at our partner video site, http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following and supporting this effort in 2007 and even before that in our non-blogspot sites in 2006.

Now Everyone is Talking About "The Great Debaters," but Global Debate Had It First

Every debate group imaginable is getting on "The Great Debaters" bandwagon. That is easy. It seems like a great movie with great stars and an inspiring story.

And it is nice that everyone now knows about it.

Regular readers of GLOBAL DEBATE http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/ would know all about it.

Stories from August 20, August 31, October 21 and December 6 have kept GLOBAL DEBATE readers informed.

If you want to know the real deal first, subscribe.

I don't feel quite so comfortable blowing my own horn so often, but I could not resist it on this one.

A Pause for Travel

I am on my way to the other side of the world. I fly tomorrow to San Diego, then I head for Mexico until early next week. I need to work on my keynote speech for the World Universities Peace Invitational Debates in Malaysia. Then I will fly to Kuala Lumpur for the WUPID, which promises to be an exciting and inspirational event. I will report on the event as it happens.

After that I will do some vacationing in Southeast Asia. I hope to have internet, but one never knows. I will post stories when I can.

I will end up in Thailand where I will be reporting on the World Universities Debating Championship to be held at Assumption University in Bangkok. I should have lots of internet access there.

After that a bit more vacation and then back to the USA in January for the new school semester and back to the routine.

Be patient, and I will do my best to report on the news from the world of debate while on the move.

Thanks to those who read this. Visitation stats are starting to rise and I appreciate your visits.

Send me news of debate events where you are so I can promote them.

alfred.snider@uvm.edu

The next news will be from Mexico.