THE GREAT DEBATES: Background Perspective--Effects

How did TV viewers react to the Nixon-Kennedy debates? What impact did the debates have on their image of the candidates? on their voting intention? on their understanding of the political issues involved? What is the proper relationship between presidential campaigning and the broadcasting media? These questions are all part of a bigger one that this incisive study seeks to answer: what implications have the debates for future elections and for mass communication generally? To find the answers the contributors conducted it field studies designed to measure audience reaction to the debates. They also report on the background and origin of the debates, the negotiations preceding the debates, and the format employed. This useful collection of articles dispels a few legends relating to the role of the politicians and television studios, replacing them with facts and providing many additional points of interest: the problems that arise from the rule requiring studios to give equal time to all candidates: the techniques employed by the studies to meet production difficulties. At a time when the sense of responsibility to the public in communication media is growing, and Madison Avenue is increasingly being drawn into political campaigns, this thoroughgoing inquiry is of interest and concern to students in social science and to those readers interested in media analysis. The book contains the complete texts of the four debates.