As voters focus on the specifics of the debates between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, one ASU professor is working to publish a book on the strategies these candidates and others before them have used.
Kelly McDonald, an associate professor of communication at the Downtown campus and Diana Carlin, dean for graduate students at the University of Kansas, co-wrote “The Third Agenda in U.S. Presidential Debates.”
McDonald said the most fascinating part of their research found voters are very tuned into a candidate’s character.
“Some of the most interesting findings we had coming out of the research dealt with the way voters looked at character, he said. “Interestingly, voters have very distinct and discreet ways that they look at issues of character and personality in debates.”
Carlin agreed, saying she also liked the section that discussed character.
“It’s always an issue in campaigns, and I don’t think most of the media gets it,” Carlin said. “I don’t think that everyone understands how people determine whether someone has the right leadership qualities or personality to be president.”
The book, which discusses a wide variety of topics from why constituents should study debates to what types of characters voters choose, is the result of 12 years of research, McDonald said.
Carlin was approached by the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1992 and asked to write a book focused on future debates. In 1995, McDonald and Carlin, along with partner researchers Tammy Virgil and Susan Buehler, received a grant for $200,000 from the Ford Foundation to create DebateWatch96, an organization that brought more than 200 education partners together to research the debates. This research was used to write the book.
The research followed the presidential debates of 1996, 2000 and 2004. The main forms of research were focus groups and surveys in order to get a feel of how voters feel about presidential debates, he said.
McDonald said the debates are meant more to influence a voter based on how something is being said rather than what is being said.
“The modern media tends to make a lot out of little details,” McDonald said. “People watch the debates not just for content, but also for effect.”
The book will be available Dec. 31 McDonald said.
Carlin said she felt the book would be very well received by the general public — not just people interested in politics.
“I think it’s a very accessible book even though this was done as a scholarly research project, and there’s a lot of research reported in the book,” Carlin said. “It was written in a way that I think anyone who’s interested in politics can pick it up and understand it.”
Reach the reporter at allison.gatlin@asu.edu.
