Media coverage influences value of presidential debates for viewers

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Washington, Sept. 25: The presidential debates offer viewers a lot of substance about the issues of the campaign, but post-debate media coverage can undermine the value they have for voters, a new study suggests.

Results showed that post-debate coverage that focused on the debate as a competition led viewers to think less about policy issues.

By comparison, coverage that focused on the substance of the discussion increased the likelihood that viewers would come away with specific thoughts about candidates’ policy proposals.

The researchers conducted two different studies in which young Americans viewed actual clips from the 2004 and 2008 presidential debates and then read media coverage of the debate.

Afterward, the researchers asked the viewers to describe the debate as they would to a friend. From these descriptions, the researchers were able to tell how the media coverage affected what viewers chose to focus on in reflecting back on the debates.

“With the level of substance in the debates, there is some hope that this could be a positive moment in which people really engage in the important questions of policy,” Ray Pingree, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University, said.

But whether viewers actually did that depended a lot on the media coverage.

“The media have a strong influence on whether viewers think of the debate in terms of a discussion of the issues or simply as a competition between the candidates,” he said.

“We need the media to treat the content of the debates more seriously. Viewers want to hear how their vote choice connects to real problems facing the nation and they want help from the media in figuring out which policies will actually be more likely to solve problems. There will be other times for the media to focus on who won or who looked better,” he added.

“The media have a strong influence on whether viewers think of the debate in terms of a discussion of the issues or simply as a competition between the candidates,” he said.

For example, simply saying “I would like more tax cuts” is not a policy reason. However, saying “I would like more tax cuts to stimulate the economy” would qualify as a policy reason.

In this study, the media coverage had a strong effect on whether the viewers engaged in this policy reasoning. (ANI)