A Digital Agora: Citizen Participation in the 2008 Presidential Debates

Abstract

During the 2008 presidential election, communication technology permitted media outlets, such as YouTube, ABC, and CNN, to create an electronic gathering place for citizens—a digital agora—both as created online and through related news and mediated events. While the web and media channels served as mouthpieces or magnifiers for campaign messages in previous elections, they were transformed into participatory spaces during this election. The YouTube debates and CNN’s use of debate dial testing are examined as the authors demonstrate how such civic engagement resulted in increased feelings of citizen efficacy in the political process and changed the political media environment.

Civic political engagement and social change in the new digital age

“…In particular, we find that all three forms of behavior are positively correlated and that participating in any one of these actions may reinforce participating in the others (Kirk and Schill, 2011). The challenge researchers face, however, is what constitutes these activities.…”

“…The work on democratic participation must constantly be revisited in order to keep pace with technological developments, new forms of social communication, and how these are also shaping political engagement. Does the co-creation of political content, adaptation, sharing information, and facilitating open political discussions in the "digital agora" (Kirk and Schill, 2011) suggest a more deliberative democracy is emerging?…”

Tweets, Polls, and Quotes: Gatekeeping and Bias in On-Screen Visuals During the Final 2012 Presidential Debate

“…Nearly 3,000 submissions were reviewed by journalists and 29 videos were chosen by journalists to air (Cooper as cited in McGookin, 2007). These CNN=YouTube debates show how social media is being integrated into the presidential debate process (Kirk & Schill, 2011). Although, exposure effects to the CNN= YouTube debates did not differ when compared to traditional journalist-controlled debates (McKinney & Rill, 2009).…”

“…However, recent presidential debates (e.g., 2004, 2008, 2012) broadcasted by television networks, in particular, cable networks (e.g., MSNBC and CNN), have included more on-screen visuals. For instance, live dial-testing results from focus groups were shown on-screen during CNN's live coverage of the presidential debates in 2008 (Kirk & Schill, 2011) and in 2012. Although the use, effectiveness, and ethics of these live dial tests during presidential debates continues to be debated (e.g., Kirk & Schill, 2011;Moore, 2008), there is no indication that this type of debate coverage will decline.…”

Refugee or Migrant Crisis? Labels, Perceived Agency, and Sentiment Polarity in Online Discussions

“…Research has also found that YouTube comments appear to reflect real-life communication behavior (Schultes, Dorner, & Lehner, 2013). Thus, YouTube commentary may serve as a lens for public opinion on issue importance, or even as a venue for user mobilization, learning, and opinion-formation (Jones & Schieffelin, 2009;Kirk & Schill, 2011;Porter & Hellsten, 2014).…”