Search

This study presents the results of a quasi-experiment to assess the effects of viewing a strategically manipulated portion of a 2020 Democratic Primary debate. Our aim was to assess the polarizing potential of primary debates on both ingroup (Democratic) and outgroup (Republican) viewers. Viewing the primary debate resulted in less perceived closeness with members of the opposing political party, greater feelings of social distance, and more attribution of malevolent intentions. These effects were consistent regardless of whether the viewer was a member of the political ingroup (Democrats) or outgroup (Republicans). Conversely, there was no effect of debate viewing on evaluations of outparty candidates (with respect to negative trait attributions or lower feeling thermometer evaluations)., nor did support for political compromise change as a result of viewing the debate. Both Democrats and independents reported improved evaluations of participating candidates, though Republican evaluations did not change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the results of two studies measuring the effects on undergraduate communication students of watching U.S. presidential primary debates. Concludes that primary debates are capable of influencing both policy and character impressions of the candidates, as well as changing voting intentions and increasing voter confidence. (SG)

Uses a pretest/posttest design to assess more subtle effects of watching a 2000 presidential debate on attitudes and vote intention among undergraduate students. Notes that leadership and overall policy stance became more important factors in vote choice after watching the debate. Demonstrates a variety of potentially important effects of watching presidential debates. (SG)

This study examined the effects of tweeting while watching a presidential debate (live-tweeting) during the 2012 U.S. election. We examined candidate evaluations and debate attitudes for participants who did and did not tweet while watching a presidential or vice presidential debate. We found that tweeting while watching a debate was related to participants' reporting more favorable attitudes about Barack Obama, paying more attention to the debate, and perceiving debates to be more important. Lice-tweeting a debate was not related to enjoying the debate more. Overall, our results indicate that live-tweeting a televised political event can result in different effects than simply watching a debate and that live-tweeting debates is an activity driven by engagement with and thoughtful processing of debate content rather than primarily about fun or passing time. Key Words: presidential debate, social media, Twitter, social watching, politics, The last several U.S. presidential campaigns have each been marked by different, evolving communication technologies. The 2004 election has been referred to as the 'internet election,' best characterized by Howard [...]

This study responds to The Racine Group's (2002) call for campaign debate research that explores 'the tram-campaign effects of debates on such matters as voting behavior, image formation, and attitude change' (p. 199). Our analysis of debate effects from 2000 to 2012provides a number of important insights into how presidential campaign debates function in different campaign contexts. Specifically, we examine debate effects across multiple campaign periods, including analysis of the presidential election cycles and debates in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012; and we also explore campaign contexts in which incumbents are seeking reelection (2004 and 2012) as well as 'open' races with no incumbent president engaged in general election debates. Finally, our analysis allows for comparative assessments across different types of debates as we include viewer responses to both Democrat and Republican primary and general election debates, as well as vice presidential debates. Overall, our findings support existing presidential debate research, provide a greater understanding of specific debate effects, and also raise a number of intriguing questions for future research. Key Words: presidential debates, primary debates, debate effects, political cynicism, political information efficacy, It has become an expected narrative of the quadrennial U. S. presidential selection that once nominating conventions have adjourned, attention quickly turns to the next big event of the presidential [...]

Issue agendas for young adults spanning primary and general election phases of the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign are reported in this article. Results from pretest and posttest experiments and a postelection survey show that young adults' issues remained stable throughout early and late phases of the campaign. Issues such as the war in Iraq, education, terrorism and homeland security, economy and jobs, and health care were consistently among the young adults' top-ranked issues. Civil liberty issues also garnered a significant place on young adults' agenda. Any concern that young adults are fickle about issues is erased as the issue agendas spanning the 15 months were highly correlated. Keywords: agenda setting; issues; young voters; war in Iraq; economy; education; terrorism; health care

This study examines how exposure to a televised debate affects young citizens' normative democratic tendencies, attitudes that have been linked to increased civic and political participation, including voting behavior. The authors also are interested in the confidence young citizens express in the political knowledge they possess their political information efficacy--and specifically how confidence in one's knowledge may be affected by exposure to such a sustained and 'information-rich' source of campaign information as a 90-minute candidate debate. Findings reveal that debates strengthen, at least in the short term, democratic attitudes and also strengthen young citizens' levels of political information efficacy. Keywords: young citizens; presidential debates; political information efficacy; civic engagement

With young voters reporting lower levels of political knowledge and information than older voters, and with young citizens often attributing their abstention from voting to their lack of political knowledge, this study focuses on the role that specific campaign messages play in enhancing young voters' political information. We first advance a theory of political information efficacy, positing that different levels of information processing occur from different sources of political information. Our findings reveal that specific types of political messages affect young and older citizens' political information efficacy differently and that political information efficacy plays a significant role in voting or nonvoting for young citizens. Keywords: political information efficacy; young voters; political advertising; presidential debates

Studies of campaign debates have become a valuable area of political communication research, providing greater understanding of candidate rhetorical strategies as well as effects from debate viewing. This research, however, [...]

This study argues that a 'devolution' of the presidential town hall debate as public sphere has occurred, whereby every 4 years citizens' freedom to participate in their debate--as they see fit--has been seriously restricted. The primary purpose of this study is to examine how well the town hall presidential debate, particularly in its current form, addresses issues of greatest concern to the American public. Specifically, to test how well the dialogue of a town hall debate matches the public's campaign issue agenda, as well as examine possible changes over time, analysis compares the issues discussed in both the 2004 and 1992 town hall debates to the agenda of issues that citizens claimed were most important to them. Results suggest that as candidates have gained greater control over the town hall's structure and resulting dialogue, the ability of this forum to reflect a citizen's issue agenda has greatly diminished. Keywords: presidential debates; town hall debate; public sphere; public agenda

One mechanism by which citizens learn about candidates and issues is through watching presidential debates. Some scholars have raised concerns that these events, however, disproportionately benefit those already high in political knowledge more so than others with lesser knowledge levels. We hypothesize that knowledge begets knowledge because it prompts a constructive cognitive process that results from elaboration and reflection. We test this hypothesis in an experiment that also considers whether issue priming could help mitigate the deficit that those lower in political sophistication have when viewing campaign events. Participants (N = 543) watched a 9-minute segment focusing on economic issues drawn from the first 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to an issue priming condition and viewed the debate segment after reading a narrative text on economic policy, and the other half read an unrelated text. The study presents a model that reveals the following: (a) cognitive elaboration mediates the relationship between prior political knowledge and learning from a campaign event, (b) providing citizens with background issue–related knowledge produces a similar elaborative effect as did preexisting political knowledge, and (c) participants demonstrate greater political opinion articulation following this enhanced elaboration leading to more learning. The implications for cultivating a knowledgeable democratic electorate are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the effects of watching presidential debates has on television viewers. Topics include image advertising, campaign debates, and political campaigns.

This study tests persuasive effects of 30 debate performances drawn from samples (n = 5780) of 22 states over four election cycles (2004–2016). We test partisanship of the candidate, type of debate (presidential or vice-presidential), gender of the candidate, whether it was the first debate of the cycle, and whether it was a town-hall debate as possible moderators. Results reveal that viewers are likely to perceive their inparty candidate more favorably after viewing a debate, particularly for vice-presidential candidates, Democratic candidates, and female candidates. Debate viewing did not consistently influence evaluations of the outparty candidate. We conclude that debates can persuade and argue for a reconceptualization of partisan-motivated reasoning as a constraint on political persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an experiment and probability sample of Chicago and Los Angeles adults (N = 1211), this study tested how tweet characteristics (tone, space) and participant age (younger, middle, older) affected attitudes about tweets from a local newspaper. Results indicate that non-opinionated tweets were perceived as more useful and credible than opinionated tweets, and local tweets resulted in more engagement than national tweets. Younger participants (19–36 years) reported more positive affect, usefulness, engagement, and credibility related to tweets than did middle/older age groups. Younger participants were generally more negative about opinionated national tweets and preferred opinionated local tweets compared with middle/older groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we assess the extent to which attending a candidate rally was associated with distrust of democratic institutions, epistemic rigidity, attribution of malevolent intentions to the political outgroup, and acceptance of political violence. Surveys (N = 251) were distributed at rallies the night before and day of the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. Results suggest that attendees of rallies for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump were more likely to distrust democracy relative to attendees of a Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz rally. Findings also suggest that mistrust of democracy was associated with greater attribution of malevolence and acceptance of political violence. Attending a Sanders or Trump rally was indirectly associated with attribution of malevolence and acceptance of political violence through democratic mistrust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the effects of watching presidential debates tends to show that these messages can Jester learning about the candidates' issue positions and influence voters' impressions of the candidates. This study uses a pretest/posttest design to assess more subtle effects of watching a 2000 presidential debate on attitudes and vote intention. Leadership and overall policy stance became more important factors in vote choice after watching the debate. Specific groups of issues also became more important in vote choice. Viewers reacted to the candidates differentially: Bush enhanced perceptions of his character (but not of his policy positions), while Gore improved perceptions of his policy positions (but not of his character). The data also reveal that the debates increased the confidence of vote choices for those who did not change their preferred candidate over the course of this study (which could make them more likely to vote on election day and/or less likely to change their vote choice). This study demonstrates a variety of potentially important effects of watching presidential debates. Key words: Presidential Debate Watching, Policy, Character, Leadership Ability, Vote Intention, Vote Confidence

This study reports the effects of viewing a Republican primary debate that took place December 2, 1999, in Manchester, New Hampshire, and includes six candidates: Gary Bauer, George Bush, Steve Forbes, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and Alan Keyes. After viewing the debate, respondents' perceptions of candidate image changed, and candidate vote preferences also changed. Our results suggest that primary debate participation may have negative consequences for a campaign front-runner. This study also measures reactions to candidates' specific issue appeals and finds that appeals made by the large field of primary candidates vying for public attention--whom we label also-rans--tend to be evaluated more negatively by debate viewers than those appeals made by the better-known candidates. Finally, candidates who adopt the often employed debate strategy of attacking the front-runner might find that such a strategy is more successful if employed in moderation.

In modern political campaigns voters must rely on the mass media for most of their information about political candidates and issues. Candidates, of course, seek to maximize the advantages of [...]