{"id":915,"date":"2024-11-12T12:43:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?page_id=915"},"modified":"2024-11-15T17:49:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T17:49:51","slug":"value-of-tv-debates-reduced-during-trump-era","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/value-of-tv-debates-reduced-during-trump-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof. Richard Thomas <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of the School of Culture and Communication at Swansea University. He is co-author of \u201cReporting Elections: Rethinking the logic of Campaign Coverage<\/em>\u201d (2018, Polity), and was Co-I on an ESRC project about Alternative Political Media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email: richard.h.thomas@swansea.ac.uk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Matthew Wall <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of Politics, Philosophy, and International Relations at Swansea University. He has published extensively about the intersection of the internet and election campaigns and is Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email: m.t.wall@swansea.ac.uk<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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U.S. Election 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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78. Momentum is a meme<\/a> (Prof Ryan M. Milner)
79. Partisan memes and how they were perceived in the 2024 U.S. presidential election<\/a> (Dr Prateekshit \u201cKanu\u201d Pandey, Dr Daniel Lane)
80. The intersection of misogyny, race, and political memes... America has a long way to go, baby!<\/a> (Dr Gabriel B. Tait)
81. Needs Musk: Trump turns to the manosphere<\/a> (Dr Michael Higgins, Prof Angela Smith)
82. \u201cWooing the manosphere: He\u2019s just a bro.\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s digital transactions with \"dude\" influencers<\/a> (Prof Mark Wheeler)
83. Star supporters<\/a> (Prof John Street)
84. Pet sounds: Celebrity, meme culture and political messaging in the music of election 2024<\/a> (Dr Adam Behr)
85. The stars came out for the 2024 election. Did it make a difference?<\/a> (Mark Turner)
86. Podcasting as presidential campaign outreach<\/a> (Ava Kalinauskas, Dr Rodney Taveira)
87. Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era<\/a> (Prof Richard Thomas, Dr Matthew Wall)
88. America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates<\/a> (Dr Caroline Leicht)<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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We can\u2019t be certain whether the single presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump had much impact on the outcome of the 2024 election. Certainly,\u00a0<\/strong>most called it as a victory for Harris<\/a>, her answers seemingly more coherent than her opponent\u2019s. Trump\u2019s victory though, suggests that he learned from the experience and that his campaign was more effective thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If election strategists knew what had the greatest impact on the voting public, then of course, campaigns would become instantly more polarised and focused. In a fragmented, proliferated contemporary media landscape, \u201cinfluence\u201d might be wielded via a complex combination of messages across platforms. But ever since the first televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy in 1960,\u00a0they have been thought to have had some say in the final result.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0The first debate 65 years ago might not have been pivotal, but the BBC suggested that it certainly \u201caccelerated Democratic support for Kennedy\u201d, who eventually went on to become president.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that occasion, a wan-faced Nixon came up short versus his tanned, urbane opponent and suddenly, what you looked like in front of a TV camera seemed just as important as what you said. This was confirmed by\u00a0Conservative MP Ian Gow<\/a>\u00a0in the first televised speech in the UK parliament in 1989, when he repeated an image consultant\u2019s assertion that while \u201cthe impression you make on television depends mainly on your image (55%)\u201d and your voice and body language accounted for 38%, only 7% depends on \u201cwhat you are actually saying\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So perhaps we can assume that these debates do actually matter (even as only visual touchpoints), given that they are actually scheduled in the first place, that Donald Trump refused to do a second one in 2024, and that they draw such a huge audience. Indeed, over 67 million watched the debate in September 2024, but even this fell short of the first Clinton\/Trump event in 2016,\u00a0when 84 million tuned in.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The semiotics of the visual event aside, these debates offer a chance for voters to identify differences between the wider visions and detailed policies of each candidate. After all, policy coverage \u2013 or the lack of it \u2013 is the hardy annual of scholarship considering how elections are covered. Most empirical studies would reveal that the trials and tribulations of everyday campaigning usually overwhelm the details of who would do what in office, and how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So TV debates provide a real-time opportunity to make these policy pledges and to add some detail, and to offer candidates the chance to speak to less politically engaged voters who don\u2019t routinely follow American politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But TV debates might also be problematic. The complete focus of attention on the party figurehead \u2013 the \u201cpresidentialization\u201d  of political coverage \u2013 is recognised by scholars and commentators as shining undue light on the candidates\u2019 personalities, appearance and idiosyncrasies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presidentialization also marginalises any wider party machinery, and other politicians likely to wield considerable power within any new administration. Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 contest amid concerns about his health and cognitive ability, and there have been\u00a0similar concerns about Trump<\/a>.\u00a0So knowing who \u2013 in extreme circumstances \u2013 might end up as a stand-in to the president seems increasingly important.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other danger, we suggest, is perhaps more specific to the Trump era of American politics. When one candidate comes from reality TV and is a celebrity-turned-politician rather than the other way around, it seems inevitable that delivery and performance will always prevail over content in these televised debates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the style over substance imbalance is perhaps inevitable, the way that Trump has essentially reduced political debate to its lowest common denominator is not. While Nixon and Kennedy had clear ideological differences, their interchanges were courteous and polite meaning that their policies remained the focus. Trump\u2019s insulting behaviour was clear\u00a0during the debate\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0and has been prominent in\u00a0the campaign more widely<\/a>. Moreover, with\u00a0political scientists in Tennessee<\/a>\u00a0suggesting that Harris was almost matching Trump insult for insult, we argue that their value has been reduced to the extent that they are now unpleasant public \u201croasts\u201d rather than useful points of reference for voters wanting to be better informed. While Harris\u2019s strategy made some sense when set against her opponent\u2019s emphasis on \u201cowning\u201d his opponent through direct insults, not many politicians will skew debate strategy to the extent that Donald Trump has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s victory in 2024 means that it\u2019s unlikely that the quality of political debate will improve. Trading barbs has been a successful strategy and so why would he change it? Whether he succeeds in his bid to \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d at his second attempt remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely that \u201cmaking political debate great again\u201d will be anywhere on his to-do-list.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Richard Thomas Head of the School of Culture and Communication at Swansea University. He is co-author of \u201cReporting Elections: Rethinking the logic of Campaign Coverage\u201d (2018, Polity), and was Co-I on an ESRC project about Alternative Political Media. Email: richard.h.thomas@swansea.ac.uk Dr. Matthew Wall Head of Politics, Philosophy, and International Relations at Swansea University. He has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1019,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-915","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nValue of TV debates reduced during Trump era - Election Analysis - United States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/value-of-tv-debates-reduced-during-trump-era\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era - Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prof. Richard Thomas Head of the School of Culture and Communication at Swansea University. 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