Media Coverage of the Prime Ministerial Debates

Coleman, Stephen; Steibel, Fabro; Blumler, Jay G.

doi:10.1057/9780230305045_4

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…After the first Prime Ministerial Debate (as the programs were branded) was broadcast, it was the third party that seemed to have read the situation most accurately, with the Liberal Democrat’s leader Nick Clegg deemed the winner in postbroadcast polls and his party surging to unprecedented ratings (Wells 2015). Although the Liberal Democrats were not able to achieve these levels of support in the election itself, there is no doubt that the debates and the accompanying wave of “Cleggmania” played a pivotal role in shaping the course of the 2010 election campaign (Coleman 2010).…”

Section: Applying the Theory Of Speciation To Televised Election Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other researchers have critiqued the focus on debate winners, losers, and electoral impacts. Instead, they claim, it is more important to understand the role that debates play in democratic and civil life (Coleman 2010). Recent years have seen a newer strand of literature emerging, focused on countries in the developed world with high levels of internet connectivity, examining how viewers now use two screens (the traditional television and a second internet-enabled device) to comment on broadcasts in real time (Anstead 2015;Anstead and O'Loughlin 2011;Elmer 2013).…”

Section: Parliamentary Democraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the Liberal Democrats were not able to achieve these levels of support in the election itself, there is no doubt that the debates and the accompanying wave of "Cleggmania" played a pivotal role in shaping the course of the 2010 election campaign (Coleman 2010). …”

Section: United Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Different Beast? Televised Election Debates in Parliamentary Democracies

Anstead

2016

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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The author would like to thank Nora Kroeger for her work on this project, and the LSE for financial support for this research. Thanks should also go to Sonia Livingstone for very useful comments on an earlier draft, plus two anonymous referees for constructive feedback on the original submission. Finally, the author would like to thank conference attendees who commented on this paper at the APSA General Meeting in San Francisco and the IJPP conference in Oxford, both in September 2016. Errors or omissions are entirely the responsibility of the author. 2 AbstractResearch on televised election debates has been dominated by studies of the United States. As a result, we know far less about other national contexts, including the many parliamentary democracies that now hold televised election debates. This article makes two contributions to address this. Theoretically, the study argues that traditional approaches for understanding the development of campaign communication practices (particularly, Americanization and hybridization) are limiting when applied to television debates, and instead offers an alternative theoretical approach, the concept of speciation drawn from biological science. This is then applied in the empirical section of the article in a comparative analysis of the evolution of televised election debates in four parliamentary democracies: Australia, Canada, West Germany/Germany and the United Kingdom. Based on this analysis, the article argues that the logic of parliamentary democracy coupled with more diffuse party systems has created a distinctive type of televised debate, generally more open to smaller parties based on their success at winning seats in the legislature.

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Section: Applying the Theory Of Speciation To Televised Election Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Parliamentary Democraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Different Beast? Televised Election Debates in Parliamentary Democracies

Anstead

2016

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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“…The media may engage in "preparing" the audience for the debate by speculating on its organisation, course, outcome, etc. (Coleman, Steibel, Blumler 2011, Coleman 2011. They may broadcast the debate, take part in its organisation (as was in the case of state-owned television channels in Poland and in the Czech Republic), and they can also offer follow-up comments for several days after the event.…”

Section: A Political Debate As the Subject Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Formats of Pre-Election Television Debates in Poland and the Czech Republic – A Rhetorical Look at the Genre

Budzyńska-Daca

Rawski

Dybalska

2020

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W artykule porównane zostały formaty finałowych debat prezydenckich z ostatnich wyborów w Polsce, między Andrzejem Dudą a Bronisławem Komorowskim (2015) i w Czechach między Jiřím Drahošem and Milošem Zemanem (2018). Celem tego porównania opartego na retorycznej krytyce gatunkowej było sprawdzenie, czy i jak badane wydarzenia medialne wpisują się we wzorzec gatunkowy debaty. Porównano reguły interakcji, elementy czasu i przestrzeni, a także sposób moderowania i zadawanie pytań we wszystkich analizowanych debatach. Efektem tego porównania było wskazanie kierunku hybrydyzacji gatunkowej debat przedwyborczych z ostatnich wyborów w Polsce i w Czechach.

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“…More recently, however, some media scholars have begun to argue that forms and genres of apparently nonrational political entertainment might perform a significant role in informing and stimulating citizens (Coleman 2003, 2006; Jones 2009; Klein 2011; Lunt and Stenner 2005; van Zoonen 2005). Indeed, it could be argued that television, with its unique combination of dramatizing and informing techniques and genres, is well placed to provide an appropriate “civic mix” between the high-mindedness of rational political debate and the enchanting appeal of participatory democracy (see Coleman et al 2011 for an application of this argument to media coverage of the British prime ministerial debates).…”

Section: Television As a Forum For Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Debate on Television

Coleman

2012

Television & New Media

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This article considers the potential of television as a public space in which democratic debate might be instigated, stimulated, or promoted. It asks whether television could do a better job at opening up intelligent public debate—and how opportunities to do so have been constrained historically by policies of political timidity. It considers three types of pseudo-debate commonly organized by television producers and concludes by arguing that television’s most significant capacity as a communication medium may well be its capacity to produce a civic mix between forms and techniques of popular culture and ideas relevant to democratic public deliberation.

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Media Coverage of the Prime Ministerial Debates

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

A Different Beast? Televised Election Debates in Parliamentary Democracies

A Different Beast? Televised Election Debates in Parliamentary Democracies

The Formats of Pre-Election Television Debates in Poland and the Czech Republic – A Rhetorical Look at the Genre

Debate on Television

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