Mason Heller

At times like this, getting unbiased and reliable information regarding current events in politics can be difficult. Sometimes people stumble upon misinformation, especially if they are not consistent with getting updated on current events. Mason Heller, freshmen, said he wanted to educate Nipher students on current events in politics, as some people in his generation do not expose themselves to political sources with valuable information. 

“I started a broadcast at Nipher called, ‘Capitol Hill comes to Nipher’ which is a weekly political segment that we aired [on Nipher’s announcements], mostly to educate students because not every student is very politically active,” Heller said. “Most of [my classmates] get their news from social media. I figured if I can get into a media that they [can] access, maybe they would be able to see it and start looking at the world around them.”

According to Heller, he would report on political news weekly. He said his broadcast was unbiased, getting information from all different politically leaning sources. 

“[I reported on] whatever was in the news at the moment. I would go through three sources, I would go through a central, a right, and a left winged source,” Heller said. “[I wanted] to see what stories I could find in all three of the [sources] that were most logical to air, so that people would understand what political movements were going on.”

Heller said the biggest takeaway from his broadcast was getting people interested in politics. He said he was able to get people thinking about politics by exposing them to current events happening in politics. 

“A lot of people figured out that we are the next generation who needs to make political decisions. I roped some people in, I got some people interested in politics,” Heller said. “I know at least ten, maybe 20, people who got into politics because of [the broadcast]. I was able to get people thinking.”

While Heller said he was able to educate some people on the current state of politics, he said he mostly got negative feedback from the broadcast. He said students and teachers criticised him.

“There was [an opinion to] keep politics and school separate. One of my teachers even chastised me, saying that the stories that I included were too biased and I was being too left-leaning.” Heller said. “I definitely got mocked a lot for it.”

According to Heller, it is important for students to learn the history of politics and stay informed on current events in politics in order to avoid repeating mistakes that were made in the course of history. He said people need to learn how to not be polarized when it comes to politics, and to get educated beyond the right and left side of political issues. 

“I think that when we learn about politics, we can learn about people who don’t think the same as us and we can make a human connection there. When people learn about politics, they learn about something more than just right or left, they are learning how to have a discussion with someone and where to share their ideas,” Heller said. “Even if you might disagree with some [viewpoints], it helps you learn about other people, to have a human connection.”