UH Interim President John Rudley ranked as the least known of 10 public figures in a recent poll of 100 students asked to identify officials most reported in the news.
When asked to identify Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, pre-pharmacy junior Juan Toj answered, "Some Hispanic guy who used to box."
Toj was equally at a loss as to who the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was.
"The guy who has the loudest mouth?" he asked.
While some students were unable to identify local or world leaders, many said they didn’t keep up with news and current events.
"We’re science majors. We really don’t pay attention to the world that revolves around us," Toj said.
Mechanical engineering freshman Marco Manalang said he only watches a certain kind of news.
"I don’t really watch the news. I watch ESPN, so I know sports," he said.
Unlike Manalang, human development senior Tamika Christian said she watches the news – or at least a part of it.
"I only watch news just for the weather," she said.
Others don’t watch the news for other reasons, such as logistics technology senior Taucha Hogue who said that watching the news can be too overwhelming.
"It should be more important to me. When I have the time to watch TV, I watch something that’s not important to my brain," Hogue said.
Other students want to start paying more attention, but they place importance on what directly affects them.
"I don’t think I know enough about the outside world, but I know enough about the inside world to get by. I’ll probably start paying attention after my first exams," creative writing junior Melissa Dickinson said.
Physics senior Gizela Batres prefers to listen to radio because of her busy schedule.
"I try to keep up with the news by reading the newspaper and watching the news at night whenever I can," she said. "I sometimes listen to National Public Radio in the evening but being a student makes keeping up with events harder. I follow them whenever I have free time."
While traditional newspaper or television format is not within every student’s reach, most access the Internet as a primary news source.
"I usually get my news from an online source like Yahoo, CNN or chron.com," architecture sophomore James Balderas said. "I use the Internet rather than the TV or a newspaper just for pure convenience."
Nutrition sophomore Shivangi Vakharia said she feels the same way about Internet news as Balderas.
"I like the fact that it’s not a lot of navigating – it’s all there. They have updates every few hours on what’s going on in the city," Vakharia said.
History sophomore Dan Cato prefers a mixed media for his news resources.
"Usually from The London Times or The Washington Post. Or when I’m on the Internet, MSN or Yahoo," he said.
Computer engineering technology sophomore Oscar Verduzco said he feels that political news is important.
"I’m actually watching the news right now (on his laptop). I’m from Mexico, and they cover the national news," he said.
Verduzco feels that U.S. news is not always based on priority, but the interest of the American people.
"I’ve seen the news here, and it seems like they are just trying to catch people’s attention with impacting news but not really with content," he said. "It’s all breaking news at the bottom and something stupid going on, like Britney Spears did this."
Additional reporting by Daily Cougar staff news writers.
