Televised Presidential Debates in a Changing Media Environment

This two-volume set examines recent presidential and vice presidential debates, addresses how citizens make sense of these events in new media, and considers whether the evolution of these forms of consumption is healthy for future presidential campaigns—and for democracy.

The presidential debates of 2016 underscored how television highlights candidates' and campaigns' messages, which provide fodder for citizens' widespread use of new media to "talk back" to campaigns and other citizens. Social media will continue to affect the way that campaign events like presidential debates are consumed by audiences and how they shape campaign outcomes. This two-volume study is one of the first to examine the relationship between debates as televised events and events consumed by citizens through social media. It also assesses the town hall debate format from 1992 to 2016, uses the lens of civil dialogue to consider how citizens watch the debates, and considers the growing impact of new media commentary on candidate images that emerge in presidential and vice presidential debates.

Televised Presidential Debates in a Changing Media Environment features contributions from leading political communication scholars that illuminate how presidential debates are transforming from events that are privately contemplated by citizens, to events that are increasingly viewed and discussed by citizens through social media. The first volume focuses on traditional studies of debates as televised campaign events, and the second volume examines the changing audiences for debates as they become consumed and discussed by viewers outside the traditional channels of newspapers, cable news channels, and campaign messaging. Readers will contemplate questions of new forms, problems, and possibilities of political engagement that are resulting from citizens producing and consuming political messages in new media.