News Verdicts, the Debates, and Presidential Campaigns

by James Bernstein, William Elliott, James Lemert, Karl Nestvold, William Rosenberg

Overview

The most definitive report ever on verdict effects, this book gives striking new evidence that media assessments of presidential debates sway voters. The authors conducted 2,350 surveys and extensive analysis of news reports to scrutinize the post-debate news of 1988. They also examined the effects of the attack ads used by Bush and Dukakis. They found that the news media consistently downplay debate content and instead emphasize their own views on candidate performance—media verdicts influence voters as much as the debates themselves.

Extensive content analyses and more than 2,350 surveys were conducted to analyze media verdicts on the 1988 debates. The verdicts on Bush, Dukakis, Quayle, and Bentsen announced in post-debate newscasts are compared with those from debates in 1984, 1980 and 1976. The study finds that the news media consistently downplay debate content and instead emphasize their own views on candidate performance. These media verdicts influence voters as much as the debates themselves. The study also examines the effects of attack ads used by Bush and Dukakis, and finds that they backfired—network news probably rebroadcast more excerpts of attack ads in 1988 than ever before. Television jourbanalists, the essays in this book show, have become increasingly less interested in how the debates served the information needs of the voters and increasingly more preoccupied with how they affected the ambitions of the candidates. A noticeable trend in 1988 was as the fall debates went on, voters' beliefs that further debates would be helpful to them went down. Another finding of the study deals with a huge tactical error that the League of Women Voters committed by simultaneously announcing its withdrawal and blasting the format and ground rules imposed on it by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Also, the spin doctors who continually spouted insider information during the 1988 campaign gained more legitimacy and impact than ever before—and had a very strong effect on American public affairs jourbanalism. This intriguing book, which also provides policy recommendations for the debates, their sponsors, and the news media, is useful to jourbanalists, researchers, and civic groups concerned with elections, government, campaign reform, and communications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275937584
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/1991
Series:	Series in Language and Ideology
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)

About the Author

JAMES B. LEMERT is Profesor and Jourbanalism Graduate Studies Director at the University of Oregon. He is the author of two previous books, Does Mass Communication Change Public Opinion After All? (1981) and Criticizing the Media: Empirical Approaches (1989), and dozens of research articles. Dr. Lemert teaches courses in public opinion, jourbanalists' craft attitudes, and mass communication theory.

WILLIAM R. ELLIOTT is Associate Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in Jourbanalism at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is the author of numerous jourbanal articles and papers on media influences on the political process. Dr. Elliott teaches courses in mass communications theory, research methods, and theory construction.

JAMES M. BERNSTEIN is Assistant Professor of Jourbanalism at Indiana University. He currently teaches courses in broadcast jourbanalism, public opinion, and the media as social institutions. Dr. Bernstein's research interests include public opinion, political communication, and television and politics.

WILLIAM L. ROSENBERG is Associate Professor and Director of the Drexel University Survey Research Center. He has presented many papers and has authored numerous articles on politics and communication. In addition to serving as a media analyst during election campaigns, as well as a research consultant for local, state and national agencies, Dr. Rosenberg teaches courses in political communication, public opinion and propaganda, and research methods.

KARL J. NESTVOLD, Professor and Associate Dean, is Head of the Broadcast News Sequence, School of Jourbanalism, University of Oregon. Dr. Nestvold's research interests include the FCC theory of diversity, television news and public affairs, broadcasting in Great Britain, and the Soviet Union's external information programs.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Study Design and Rationale
Network Television News Coverage of the Debates, 1976 to 1988
Candidate Verdicts in Post-Debate Analysis Programs
Jourbanalists and the Idea of Presidential Debates
The First Bush-Dukakis Debate: Face-To-Face Contact
The Quayle-Bentsen Debate: A Verdict Effect?
The Final Presidential Debate: October 13, 1988
Debates in the Eyes of the Audience
The Audience Responds to "Attack" Ads
Debates in the Context of the Rest of the Campaign
Appendix
Bibliography
Index