Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2014 The rules of engagement : what formats, moderators, and news values tell us about the content of electoral debates Jason Marc Turcotte Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Turcotte, Jason Marc, "The rules of engagement : what formats, moderators, and news values tell us about the content of electoral debates" (2014). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2134. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2134 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: WHAT FORMATS, MODERATORS, AND NEWS VALUES TELL US ABOUT THE CONTENT OF ELECTORAL DEBATES A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Manship School of Mass Communication by Jason Marc Turcotte B.A., Roger Williams University, 2004 M.A., New York University, 2010 May 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For someone seriously considering foregoing college back as a senior at Westbrook High School, I am extremely fortunate and grateful to now find myself in this unexpected position. I have many people to thank and acknowledge for helping me reach this accomplishment. First, I would like to thank my committee: Dr. Kirby Goidel (chair), Dr. Johanna Dunaway, Dr. Rosanne Scholl, and Dr. Lance Porter. I am especially grateful to Kirby and Johanna for their friendship, guidance, wisdom, and their insistence on maintaining a sense of humor through this process. I could not have done any of this without them and I hope to one day be the kind of mentor that they were to me. I also want to thank Rosanne for being the first to nudge me toward quantitative research and giving me the encouragement I needed to become a more complete scholar. A number of other Manship faculty members – some past, some present – have taught me to be a better scholar and a better colleague. I would especially like to thank Dr. Felicia Song, Dr. Meghan Sanders, Dr. Amy Reynolds, and Dr. Bruce Hardy for all of their support. I’d like to thank Chance York, Britt Christensen, Newly Paul, Zeynep Altinay, Emily Pfetzer, and Young Kim – for being amazing colleagues and friends. I especially want to thank Dr. Laura Crosswell and Dr. Ashley Kirzinger, for being great sources of…wisdom? I’d also like to thank those at the Manship School who were so helpful and welcoming during my time here; there are simply too many to name. I want to thank new friends who made my Louisiana experience memorable with food, spirits, and a Settlers of Cattan addiction: Steffan Jambon, Kara Jambon, Travis Kern, Tyler Stroda, Beth Goidel, and the Ciaccio Family. And also to old friends for remaining an important part of my life despite geographic limitations: Betsy, Joe, Nick, Maggie, Mike, Ami, etc. ii I’d like to thank many of my students for reinforcing why I went back to school for a doctorate in the first place, especially my current MC3505 class. This class it the most engaged and unique group of individuals I have taught. I am especially grateful for supporting funds from the Hamilton Fellowship, and the research assistants I had working on this project: Hilary Soileau, Austin Matthews, and Spencer Brignac. I’d also like to thank former professors of mine for piquing my intellectual curiosity long before considering a doctoral program: Edward Delaney, Sal Fallica, and Charlton McIlwain (among many others). I would like to thank my family: my parents, Marc and Diane Turcotte, who always wanted me to have more opportunities than they had; my sisters, Jamie Becksvoort and Jessica Turcotte; my bro-in-law, Kai Becksvoort; and my new nephew, Riley Becksvoort. I’d also like to thank two of the most important people in my life. First, the person who “gets me” like no one else: Miranda Fasulo – the “Elaine Benes” to my “Jerry Seinfeld.” I am extremely fortunate that both of our parents moved to the same obscure street in the same obscure town some 25 years ago. And lastly, Wayne Dussel for being such a motivating influence during all of this and for putting up with the highs, the lows, and the moments of paranoia – justified and unjustified – that I hit along the way. I simply could not have done it without him. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………..…………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT……………….………………………………………………....................................v CHAPTER 1 EMPTY ELECTIONS: THE PROBLEM WITH CAMPAIGN COVERAGE……....…1 2 BEYOND ICONS AND IMAGES: THE CIVIC EFFECTS OF DEBATES…………22 3 THE STRUCTURE OF DEBATES AND AGENDA SUBSTANCE…….....………..37 4 METHODOLOGY: QUANTITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS……...…………..…54 5 CONVERGENCE: EXOGENOUS INFLUENCES OF DEBATE AGENDAS…...….74 6 AGENDA CONTENT: POLICY ISSUES VS. CAMPAIGN ISSUES……………...101 7 CLASH, CONFLICT, AND MEDIA INFLUENCE ON DEBATE TONE…….....…127 8 DIGITIZING DEBATES: THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA….……………150 9 CONCLUSION: FORGING A FUTURE FOR DEBATE REFORM?……...……….170 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………195 APPENDIXES A VARIABLE CONCEPTS AND EXAMPLES………………………………...…….212 B DATASET AND SAMPLE………………………………………………………….215 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………………218 iv ABSTRACT U.S. democracy is one of the most inclusive in the world, yet levels of political knowledge and engagement remain markedly low. Moreover, the news media’s coverage of elections inadequately informs and engages the public. These shortcomings underscore the importance of campaign events like electoral debates – events that are designed not only to educate the public but also to provide the public a more active role in the electoral process. Journalistic news norms and values wield tremendous power over campaign news agendas – including post-debate coverage – but the extent to which they influence debate agendas remains unclear. Given what we know about patterns of campaign news coverage, a closer look at mediated debate agendas is warranted. To date, no comprehensive data on debate agendas exist. With a unique sample of debate questions spanning 52 years of electoral campaigns – including general election, primary, and state-level debates – this content analysis is the first of its kind to examine the debate agenda over time and across electoral contexts. This dissertation determines not only the extent to which news norms and routines influence electoral debate agendas but also the conditions (e.g. rules, formats, moderators, question sources) predictive of particular debate questions. In short, this study provides the first systemic insight into what influences the debate agenda and why we should care about the questions posed to the candidates. The findings presented herein suggest that debates are considerably more policy-driven than campaign news coverage; however, content and tone of agendas vary according to format rules, moderator characteristics, and question source. I find that local journalists offer a more substantive and less attack-driven agenda than members of the national press corps; that, contrary to expectations, nonprofit journalists are actually less substantive than commercial press v in the debate questions they generate; and public influence through town hall formats does little to help nor hinder the substance of debate agendas. These findings are discussed in a broader democratic context, and the research presented herein offers organizers of these events best practices for future debates and recommendations for preserving their relevance and substance. vi CHAPTER 1 EMPTY ELECTIONS: THE PROBLEM WITH CAMPAIGN COVERAGE U.S. democracy is one of the most inclusive in the world, yet the electoral process is met with tepid enthusiasm at best. For those subscribing to normative conceptions of democracy, these are troubling times indeed. Scholars have cited low levels of political engagement, knowledge and efficacy among the electorate. Compared to other Western democracies, levels of knowledge and electoral engagement remain markedly low (Fishkin, 1991; Putnam, 2000; Patterson, 2003). What’s more, low levels of voter knowledge persist across recent decades, despite increasing education and expanding sources of public affairs news (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996). Paralleling these trends, scholars have also found that the news media’s coverage of elections inadequately inform and engage the public (Patterson, 1994; Farnsworth & Lichter, 2011). These findings underscore the importance of campaign events like electoral debates – events that are designed not only to educate the public but also to provide the public a more active role in the electoral process. Journalistic news norms and values wield tremendous power over campaign news agendas – including post-debate coverage – but the extent to which they influence debate agendas remains unclear. Given what we know about patterns of campaign news coverage, a closer look at mediated electoral debates is warranted. To date, no comprehensive data on debate agendas exist. The following research aims to not only illuminate the nuances behind mediated electoral debate