The news media received a 'B' grade in their coverage of the 2004 presidential election for successfully causing a surge in voter participation, according to one Marquette journalism professor.

Former print and broadcast journalist Philip Seib spoke of the media's involvement in the 2004 election at "The News Media and the Presidential Campaign: Getting it Right and Getting it Wrong" lecture Monday in the John P. Raynor, S.J. Library.

Seib is the Lucius W. Nieman professor of journalism at Marquette and is the author of 14 books, including "Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War."

He said the media help shape the outcomes of elections, which causes problems when "drama supercedes substance" and journalists begin to care more about who is ahead in polls than the issues at hand.

"The news media are players in the political process," Seib said.

He stressed that voters have the responsibility to make sure they are well-informed.

"I think laziness is the only reason why people can't make an informed decision," he said. "The media shouldn't take the blame for this. It should go to the individual voter."

However, Seib said there are many areas where the media need improvement.

The media did a poor job when it let stories about candidates' military records run too long, he said, and the vast use of poll numbers directed attention away from important issues.

He said journalistic values are all too often set aside in order to "get the story out first."

Seib criticized the news media's coverage of the war on terror and stressed the public's right to know the truth about the situation in Iraq.

"One of the jobs of the news media is education," he said. "They need to make it intelligible to the public so they can make informed decisions."

If 95 percent of Americans agree with the war, they need to know what they are getting into, he said.

"It becomes too easy to go to war if it's too neat and clean," he said.

Despite the criticisms, he said the media was more cautious when presenting returns on election night than in previous years.

In addition, election night was a "showcase for online news."

"Online newspapers are now starting to compete with television instead of just following up on what the TV news reported the night before," he said.

Overall, he said the news media deserve a grade of 'B' for campaign and election coverage.

The coverage of the presidential campaign was successful in increasing voter participation, which he said is a sign of a healthy democracy.

The lecture, sponsored by the Marquette University Librarians' Assembly and the Library Support Staff Association, was followed by a question-and-answer section.

When asked about the future of print news, Seib said he thinks it will become a combination of online and print news but will not be eliminated in the near future.

Lauren Smith, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, attended the event and said it was interesting to get an academic perspective on the media.

"It called to mind how limited we are in what we actually hear and how it affects public opinion," said Pat Landry, freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences.