The 1992 Presidential Debates in Focus
Subtitle: (Praeger Series in Political Communication)
Contributors: Diana B. Carlin (Editor); Mitchell S. McKinney (Editor)
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Published: September 30, 1994
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780275948467
Subjects: Elections & referenda; Media studies; Political manifestos; c 1990 to c 2000; Mass Communication Media And Politics; U.S. Presidential Elections; Language Arts & Disciplines; Politics / Current Events; Language; USA; Communication; Political Process - General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication; 1989-1993; 1992; Campaign debates; Election; Politics and government; Presidents; United States
Description: The results of a focus group research project sponsored by the Commission of Presidential Debates and conducted during the 1992 presidential and vice presidential debates are reported. The study involved 625 participants from fifteen states who met in sixty focus groups held during the period of the debates.

Focus group participants answered questions regarding what they learned from the debates, how they assessed the formats, what improvements they wanted in future debates, and how information provided by the debates compared with that from other news sources. The fourteen chapters of this volume include a summary of past research on presidential debates, an outline of the focus group methodology used here, and the results of the focus groups, including numerous quotations from focus group members.

The results specifically address the questions of debate format, voter learning, male versus female response to the debates, opinions of student voters, analyses of disagreements among focus group members, and a set of recommendations for future debates.