Representations of televised debates in the press and their influence on political candidates: the cases of Spain, the UK, and the US

Abstract

Televised political debates are key events in electoral campaigns, and the media, as a social agent, play a significant role in their representation. Media representations affect citizens’ perceptions of political events and give them meaning, and they also influence politicians’ performances. This chapter focuses on the representations of televised debates in the press from Spain, the UK, and the US, corresponding respectively to the 1993, 2000, and 2010 general and presidential elections. This research is composed of the analysis of news articles, op-eds, opinionated columns, transcriptions, and cartoons published two days after the televised debates by ABC, El Mundo, and El País; the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, and The Guardian; and The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Qualitative content analysis is used to compare the representation of televised debates in order to examine how different meanings are assigned to them, and to verify whether there is evidence in media representations of the media’s influence on candidates’ behavior. The results show that televised debates have neither a unique nor universal meaning in the press, suggesting further that prior newspaper representations influenced candidates’ performances.