Number 1 Party School

The radio broadcast was about the drinking issue at Penn State, and how this school was voted the number one party school in America. There are two opposing viewpoints to this issue. The students, who wear this title loud and proud, feel as though their drinking habits are a part of the college experience. Then there is the administration, police, and surrounding neighbors who believe that it is a serious issue that needs to be taken care of. The problem here is that the students who attend Penn State are set in their values and no matter what administration does, no change in drinking will occur.

This drinking issue needs to be investigated because there can be serious consequences to this excessive amounts of drinking, especially with so many students. There are property damages and disturbance to surrounding homes. There are health effects and possible deaths or hospital visits. Also it affects the academics of the students as well as the amount of study time or even sleep. Due to these negative consequences portrayed in this broadcast, there is a specific audience being targeted. In general, the intended audience is anyone who wants to be aware of the true atmosphere of Penn state on the weekends or at a football game. But the audience is also anyone who is in a high position or has the desire to make a change. Since the broadcast focuses on displaying the affects drinking can have, the information can be very stunning to people not living in this area, therefor prompting a response to do something about the excessive drinking.

The broadcasters went into detail of all different sides of the issue as well as how it affected each group differently. The students, enjoying their weekends at state college and not having a care in the world, are directly affected if there is enough alcohol consumed. There have been a few death incidents at state college where a student has drank too much and died of alcohol poisoning or was unaware of what they were doing and fell down a flight of stairs. As hurtful as this information is to hear, there still was no effect on the students drinking habits. The stores located in the downtown area receive a direct affect from the students since they are right in the middle of the craziness. They have adjusted well to the late night party-goers and have come to enjoy the students company. One bar owner even said that he prefers the younger crowd because they have less “adult issues” to deal with. The storeowners have made successful business moves by the $1 a slice pizza or by displaying condoms in the windows of their stores. The downtown area booms with business in the late hours of the night, as drunk kids are more willing to spend their money. Furthermore, the police have to almost lower their standards at state college compared to the real world. They know that almost every single person on the street is drinking and half of them are underage, but there is no way he could give out 10,000 underages in on one night. He says that if someone is making a scene or causing an issue, it is his job to step in and make sure everyone is safe. The administration is effected by the excessive drinking as well due to their efforts to make sure that Penn State keeps its reputation as a good school. They have worked for many years in making numerous efforts to lower the amount of students drinking by having alcohol free dorms, late night movie nights at the Hub, and many more activities.  

The conclusion was summed up with the interview with Graham Spaniard, president of Penn State. He says that he is not optimistic that there will be a change in students drinking habits in the upcoming future, but he does say that he and the faculty need to work harder to make a change. He cannot make a direct change himself that will have any effect on what the students do; it is a change over time and multiple variables that need to be taken in order to get results.    

There were interviews with the student who were right in the action of a typical weekend night at PSU. There was also an interview from a police officer who went through his step by step process of how a typical weekend goes, by going into the details of a specific night. There was an interview with a woman who is in administration who has attempted to make changes to educate the students to safer drinking habits. There was a man who worked in the research institute and did multiple research studies on the drinking habits and how they have changed over time. He says by changing some variable x, he would study what results occurred because of it. For example when they make stricter enforcement on off campus parties, he found that less people were drinking and more people were studying.

The broadcasters had multiple narrative techniques. They directly took voice recordings of a night at Penn State and so they could incorporate quotes into the broadcast. But it’s not just a quote on a piece of pape, it’s the full atmosphere of Penn State. You could get such a better sense of the student’s night by the tone of their voices and the slurring of their words. The broadcasters used statistics and informational data to give credence and value to what they’re expressing. They used scenes and broke up the investigative report into different acts that addressed different viewpoints of the same issue and how the drinking issue affected different groups of people.

I liked this piece a lot. I thought it was very informative and at the same time relatable since almost every student in state college knows exactly what the results in the report showed. I especially liked how there were many different voices added into the piece as well as the multiple recordings. Because of this, I could actually hear voices which painted a picture in my mind. It really puts the reader downtown or at the bus stop on a Saturday night at Penn State. I think it gives more meaning to the message their trying to say because it’s not just a sentence or quote that is read on a piece of paper, but there’s the clamor in the background and craziness you can hear going on that really gives an atmosphere to the piece. I would have liked to hear more of the story. I think it is very interesting for a Penn State student who lives this life every weekend to take a step back and look at the issue from a whole from different perspective.