Debates

Although various types of political campaign debate had taken place in the United States since the 18th century, it was regarded a major innovation in campaign communication when televised face-to-face debates between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon occurred in 1960. The televised campaign debate has now become an expected institution in U.S. presidential campaigns, and candidate debates are now common for all levels of elective office. Within the pantheon of political message types, the televised presidential debate is viewed as one of the most important forms of campaign communication by the public, political candidates, and the media, as well as political communication scholars.

Perhaps the most often cited justification for the great attention paid to presidential debates is the fact they reach large audiences. For example, approximately 80% of the U.S. adult population viewed or listened to at least one of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates. Although viewership has declined somewhat for more recent debate series (see Table 1), presidential debates still generate the largest viewing audience of any single televised campaign event.

For the media, a presidential debate series is often treated as the “super bowl” or “prize fight” event of the general-election campaign, providing a convenient news script to perpetuate the media's typical horserace campaign coverage with candidates “dueling” or “sparring” in the debate arena. Such journalistic appeal explains why debates typically attract the largest amount of media coverage of any campaign-related news story during a presidential general election.

For voters, debates serve as a convenient focal point for what now seems to be a never-ending presidential campaign. Indeed, in one setting, voters can receive more direct-candidate information—focused largely on candidate issue positions—than they may receive throughout an entire campaign from other media and information sources. Also, for voters, debates generate the greatest amount of public interest in the ongoing campaign and spur more citizen-to-citizen discussion than any other single campaign event.

The televised presidential debate has evolved significantly since 1960, and compelling evidence suggests that U.S. democracy and voters have benefited from presidential candidates' willingness to meet, face-to-face, [Page 160]seeking the public's support. The following discussion of campaign debates will provide a brief historical synopsis of presidential debate encounters from 1960 to the present, discuss the evolution of presidential debate formats, and, finally, discuss the various effects of debate viewing.

President Ford and Jimmy Carter meet at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia to debate domestic policy during the first of the three FordCarter debates, September 23, 1976.

Source: Gerald R. Ford Library.