Applying Virtualized Real-Time Response Measurement on TV-Discussions with Multi-Person Panels

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Televised debates are major events in electoral campaigns, serving voters as a substantial source of political information and reaching millions of the potential electorate. Scholars have made use of this potential by applying Real-Time Response Measurement (RTR) to assess reception and perception processes. However, RTR-research has yet almost exclusively focused on duel scenarios. In this paper, we argue that the focus on the duel format in political and communication science research is inappropriate. Thus, we apply virtualized RTR on TV-debates with a multi-person panel. Drawing on data of two field studies (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 1191/1058) conducted with the Debat-O-Meter – an innovative virtualized RTR-Measurement toolbox – in the course of the 2017 federal election in Germany, we show that virtualized RTR-Measurement can indeed produce valid and reliable data regarding TV-discussions with a multi-person podium. Additionally, we find perception processes to be primarily shaped by party identification and prior political preferences such as candidate orientation. Furthermore, our results give strong evidence that candidate preferences are substantially affected by debate reception. Overall, our data follows an established structure well-known from research on TV-duels. As such, research on TV discussions with a multi-person panel is compatible with the existing repertoire of methods, offers great potential for political communication research and provides results that can be linked to current findings in empirical debate research while making its own contribution to the research field.</jats:p>

Assessing the impact of party identification in transnational election campaigns: Evidence from the 2019 European Parliament election

“…This might speak for an instrumental approach of partisanship overall. In a way, our results contrast to findings from other studies on televised debates at the national level where expressive party identification indeed influences candidate preferences after the debate (Waldvogel 2020). This may therefore be interpreted as a further indication for present constraints of expressive PID in transnational debates' reception and for an instrumental approach.…”

“…This facilitates to abandon physical input devices and conduct field studies outside the laboratory. Methodological research has shown that virtualised RTR provides both valid and reliable data and thus corresponds to established standards of data quality (Waldvogel 2020;Waldvogel and Metz 2020;Maier, Hampe and Jahn 2016).…”

“…There is a vast body of literature on the perception and effects of televised debates on the national level (see McKinney and Carlin 2004;Maier, Faas and Maier 2014;Benoit, Hansen and Verser 2003) as well as on methodological issues when implementing real time response measurement (RTR) in the applied research design (Waldvogel 2020;Waldvogel and Metz 2020;Reinemann, Maier, Faas and Maurer 2005;Papastefanou, 2013;Maier, Hampe and Jahn 2016a;Maier, Maurer, Reinemann and Faas 2007). This research on TV debates at the national level has shown that party identification is a predominant predictor when assessing perception processes and effects of debate reception as well as the quality of RTR-data.…”

All I do is win, no matter what? What matters in gaining electoral support from televised debates

“…Party identification thus leads individuals to view the debate through their "partisan lens;" however, it does not blind them to perceive and assess the candidates' statements in a deliberative manner. Thus, recent research has emphasized that real-time perception of the debate is a core variable to assess debate reception and its post-debate effects -at least from a short-term perspective (Maier et al, 2016;Waldvogel, 2020). So far, however, there is -to our knowledge-no work that incorporates real-time evaluations and their valence into the modelling of shifts in voting intentions.…”

Political Discussion on Television in Times of Elections: A Promise of Pluralism Social Media Users Hardly Recognize

“…Thus, in making political life visible, these deliberative programs on television have positioned themselves as privileged spaces for the practice of political-electoral discussion to settle, share and compare the projects of different political actors (Domínguez Cortina, 2011;Waldvogel, 2020). Likewise, both in Chile and in the world, these programs, as part of what is understood as confrontational televised broadcasts, allow the discourse and counter-discourse-controversially or cooperatively-to be oriented towards the construction of social consensus, conflict reduction, and greater tolerance to opposing points of view (Camaj, 2021;Plantin, 2005).…”