Third Agenda in U.S. Presidential Debates

Diana B. Carlin is a professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas. She has conducted research on presidential debates since 1980 and created the DebateWatch project. She served on the advisory board for the Commission on Presidential Debates from 1987 until 2000. She is also the co-editor of and contributor to The 1992 Presidential Debates in Focus.Kelly M. McDonald is an assistant professor at The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication where he served as Director of Forensics for five years. He is active in the Consortium for Strategic Communication, an initiative focused on national security and terrorism related questions from a message based perspective. He has published articles in Argumentation & Advocacy and in proceedings from the Conference on Argumentation.Tammy Vigil is an Assistant Professor at Boston University's College of Communication. Her research interests include political communication, rhetoric, and popular culture.Susan Buehler served as a graduate research assistant on the 1996 Ford Foundation grant project that started DebateWatch. She currently works as a part-time administrator for the University of Kansas.

• Series Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Revealing the Third Agenda Chapter 2 Why Study, Watch, and Talk about Debates? Chapter 3 DebateWatch: Developing the Study Chapter 4 Why Format Matters Chapter 5 Searching for a President: What Matters to Voters? Chapter 6 Citizen Talk Beyond the Candidates and Issues Chapter 7 Whos on Deck? Talk about Vice Presidents and Future Presidents Chapter 8 Generation Next: Youth as Political Actors Chapter 9 Nonvoters Speak Out Chapter 10 The Majors and the Minors: Who Should Participate in Debates? Chapter 11 Presidential Debates and Public Talk: The Next Chapter Appendixes A. DebateWatch 96 Materials B. 1997 Post-Election Study Surveys and Tables C. DebateWatch 2000 Materials D. DebateWatch 2004 Materials Notes Selected Bibliography

"It offers new data and a perspective (qualitative) on presidential debates that differs from most work in this area. . . . There is no question that this book offers a unique and important contribution to the literature. It merits a place in libraries and on scholars' bookshelves." - Political Science Quarterly