Tweets, Polls, and Quotes: Gatekeeping and Bias in On-Screen Visuals During the Final 2012 Presidential Debate

Abstract

This study content analyzed the on-screen visuals (i.e., candidate quotes, live Twitter feed, and poll results) displayed during the final presidential debate on the ABC News/Yahoo News live-streaming online coverage. Gatekeeping and research on political campaign coverage were used to provide rationale about the nature of the on-screen visuals. Results largely confirmed previous research into presidential campaign coverage: The on-screen visuals revealed a reliance on elite sources (media-related professionals and public figures), the on-screen visuals were largely neutral in nature for the candidates (although there was a slight pro-Obama advantage in the tweets and a slight pro-Romney advantage in the quoted material shown on-screen), and the on-screen visuals focused on horserace, strategy, and image at the expense of issue and policy discussion.

Keywords:

• Mediated Communication
• New Media
• Political Communication

Notes

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1mjT73xYE for a video of the live-streamed coverage that was content analyzed.

For a comprehensive text-list of every on-screen visual, please contact the authors, or you can find all of the on-screen visuals that were content analyzed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1mjT73xYE.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristen D. Landreville

Kristen D. Landreville is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Wyoming.

Caitlin White

Caitlin White is a master's student in the Department of Journalism at the University of Memphis.

Sam Allen

Sam Allen is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh.