Running Head: SEEING IS PERCEIVING 1 Seeing is Perceiving: The Influence of Message Structure, Political Ideology and Time on Audience Perceptions of Televised Presidential Debates Robert H. Wicks, Professor, Department of Communication Patrick Stewart, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science Austin D. Eubanks, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychological Science Scott Eidelman, Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Science J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701 Corresponding Author: Robert H. Wicks e-mail:
[email protected] 479-575-5958 (office) 479-466-6564 (cell) Paper presented at the International Conference on The U.S. Elections of 2016: Domestic and International Aspects, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, Herzliya, Israel, January 8 – 9, 2017. Running Head: SEEING IS PERCEIVING 2 Abstract This study explores how presentation style (i.e., content and message structure), predispositions (i.e., ideology) and overall exposure (i.e., time) may influence perceptions of Presidential candidates during the 2016 general election debates. A natural experiment was conducted in which college students watched the first televised Presidential debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump during the fall of 2016. Participants were randomly assigned to one of seven broadcast channel/media conditions (i.e., ABC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS and NPR). A pretest-posttest experimental design was employed to determine if perceptions of candidates changed based on media condition. Participants rated the candidates using a feeling thermometer along with 19 personal traits. Findings did not reveal a difference based upon medium. The results suggest that favorability toward both candidates generally increased after viewing a debate when controlling for political ideology (i.e., liberal or conservative).