Winston Churchill famously said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

Kyle Priest, a 2017 graduate in political science from Columbus, Ohio, used Churchill’s statement to explore relationships between political knowledge and media consumption.

“The 2016 election brought out a lot of ‘fake news’ sites and allegations that certain channels were not truthful,” Priest said. “I decided to focus on those who are not informed and why they are not informed.”

His research explored the impact of media consumption on whether people were uninformed about current events, meaning they did not know about current events, or misinformed, meaning they thought they knew but had incorrect information.

Despite having two years of experience doing on-air commentary for Beaver hockey and basketball games, he said presenting at the conference provided a unique challenge.

“It helped me practice talking in front of people and giving a presentation that has a time limit,” Priest said. “I was comfortable talking to a mic, but giving a presentation to a real audience is a different beast.”