Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Reed College of Media
Department
Reed College of Media
Committee Chair
Jensen Moore.
Abstract
This experimental study investigated the effects of the verbal and visual elements of a series of United States televised gubernatorial debates than took place between the 2006--2009 election years. Guided by the Social Judgment Theory and the Heuristic-Systematic Model, a series of 16 debate clips were shown to participants to gauge their attitudes and voting intentions toward the candidates running for office. The hypotheses predicted a correlation between viewers' level of interest in the topics discussed and their attitudes (positive or negative) toward the candidates, as well as their intentions to vote for them. Findings indicated that regardless of the content of the debate topics, participants had the most positive attitudes toward and the greatest intentions to vote for the LowVerbal/HighVisual gubernatorial candidates. While viewers also expressed positive attitudes toward the HighVerbal/LowVisual debaters, results indicated that they were still far more inclined to vote for the LowVerbal/HighVisual candidates. The topics discussed by the debaters elicited fairly neutral responses from the viewers. This suggests that they did not have much influence on viewers' intentions to vote for certain candidates.
Recommended Citation
Fernandes, Nicole Bernadette, "The language and body language of political communication: Investigating the effects of the verbal versus the visual in televised gubernatorial debates" (2010). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3298.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3298