Analyzing Televised Presidential General Election Debates

• Autorzy: Rzepecka Marta
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

This paper describes how general election presidential debates have changed over the last four decades. It will trace the development of the debate format, the dynamics of visual rhetoric, and the patterns of discourse; and will compare the standards followed by John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon in the first series of general election presidential debates held in 1960, with those followed by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the latest series of debates held in 2012. It will also analyze debate videos and transcripts in order to identify the techniques used during both series of debates, and emphasize the similarities, differences, and effectiveness thereof. Considering the growing influence of the media on presidential campaigns over the last forty years, it is assumed that the rules and format for debates, as well as the dynamics of visual rhetoric and functions of debate discourse, have changed. This stands in contrast to the role of such debates in managing and guiding public opinion during elections, which has remained the same.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

visual rhetoric; general election presidential debates; TV

• Wydawca: Księgarnia Akademicka
• Czasopismo: Ad Americam
• Rocznik: 2016
• Numer: 17
• Strony: 197-209

Twórcy

autor

Rzepecka Marta

Bibliografia

• Bartels, Larry M. “Priming and persuasion in presidential campaigns.” Capturing campaign effects. Eds. Brady, Henry E., Richard Johnston. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.78-112. Print.
• Benoit, Willaim L. “Determinants of Defense in Presidential Debates.” Communication Research Reports 24. 4 (2007): 319-325. Print.
• Benoit, Willaim L., et al. Functions of campaign ’96: Acclaiming, attacking, and defending discourse. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Print.
• Benoit, Willaim L., et al. The primary decision: A functional analysis of debates in presidential primaries. Westport: Praeger, 2002. Print.
• Benoit, William L., et al. “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Viewing U.S. Presidential Debates.” Communication Monographs 70. 4 (2003): 335-350. Print.
• Benoit, William L., William T. Wells. Candidates in conflict: Persuasive attack and defense in the 1992 presidential debates. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. Print.
• Commission on Presidential Debates. Debate Transcripts. Web. 15 October 2014.
• Commission on Presidential Debates. Debate Videos. Web. 15 October 2014.
• Dimou, Nikolaos. “2012 American Presidential Debates: A Rhetorical Analysis.” Nick “the
• Greek” Dimou. 30 March 2014. Web. 15 October 2014.
• Gallup. Presidential Debates Rarely Game-Changers. 25 September 2008. Web. 15 October
• 2014.
• Geer, John G. “The effects of presidential debates on the electorate’s preferences for candidates.” American Politics Research 16 (1998): 486-501. Print.
• Iyengar, Shanto, Donald R. Kinder. News that matters: Television and American opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Print.
• Kraus, Sidney. Televised presidential debates and public policy. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988. Print.
• Lanoue, David J., Peter R. Schrott. The joint press conference. New York: Greenwood, 1991. Print.
• Lau, Richard R., David P. Redlawsk. How voters decide: Information processing during election campaigns. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
• Lemert, James B. “Do televised presidential debates help inform voters?” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 37 (1993): 83-94. Print.
• McCombs, Maxwell E., Donald L. Shaw. “The agenda setting function of mass media.” Public Opinion Quarterly 36. 2 (1972): 176–187. Print.
• McCombs, Maxwell. Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004. Print.
• McKinney, Mitchell S., Diana B. Carlin. “Political Campaign Debates.” Handbook of political communication research. Ed. Kaid, Lynda Lee. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. 203-234. Print.
• McQuail, Denis. Media Performance. Mass Communication and the Public Interest. London: Sage Publications, 1992. Print.
• Miller, Arthur H., Michael MacKuen. “Informing the electorate: A national study.” The great debates: Carter vs. Ford 1976. Ed. Sidney Kraus. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979. 269-297. Print.
• Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. Print.
• Page, Benjamin I., Robert Y. Shapiro. The rational public: Fifty years of trends in Americans’ policy preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Print.
• Pfau, Michael, et al. “Presidential election campaigns and American democracy: The relationship between communication use and normative outcomes.” American Behavioral Scientist 49 (2005): 48-62. Print.
• Pfau, Michael, Jong G. Kang. “The impact of relational messages on candidate influence in televised political debates.” Communication Studies 42. 1 (1991): 114-128. Print.
• Pfau, Michael. “The influence of intraparty debates on candidate preference.” Communication Research 14 (1987): 1-23. Print.
• Sears, David and Steven Chaffee. “Uses and effects of the 1976 debates: An overview of empirical studies.” The great debates: Carter vs. Ford 1976. Ed. Sidney Kraus. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979. 223-261. Print.
• Tsfati, Yariv. “Debating the Debate The Impact of Exposure to Debate News Coverage and Its Interaction with Exposure to the Actual Debate.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 8. 3 (2003): 70-86. Print.
• Zhu, Jian-Hua, et al. “Do televised debates affect image perception more than issue knowledge? A study of the first 1992 presidential debate.” Human Communication Research 20 (1994): 302-333. Print.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.12797/AdAmericam.17.2016.17.15