Not Your Parents' Presidential Debates: Examining the Effects of the CNN/YouTube Debates on Young Citizens' Civic Engagement

Abstract

During the 2007–2008 U.S. presidential primaries, CNN partnered with YouTube to create the first nationally televised presidential debates where citizens interrogated the candidates via video questions posted to the Internet. The creators of these debates claimed their novel use of Internet technology “would change the face of presidential candidate debates.” The CNN/YouTube debates were designed expressly to engage citizens in the campaign dialogue, and specifically to engage young citizens who are frequent users of YouTube yet not always among the viewing audience for a televised presidential debate. The current study examines the effects of viewing the CNN/YouTube debates, and particularly the debates' influence on young citizens' “normative” democratic attitudes. Building on previous research designed to test differences in debate formats, this study compares young citizens' reactions to the CNN/YouTube debates and also to a more traditional presidential debate with candidate questioning controlled by a journalist. Results suggest that while exposure to candidate debates in general yields positive effects on young citizens' normative democratic attitudes, there was very little difference found in the effects of exposure to the CNN/YouTube debates when compared to a traditional journalist-controlled presidential debate.