Bridging the Generations: Ageism, John McCain and the 2008 Presidential Debates

• In Event: Building Brides Between Theory, Data, Texts, and Dimensions of Presidential Competence in the Study of Debates

Abstract

In terms of evaluating candidates’ abilities to function as – or perform the role of – president, the information-rich debate message, combining candidate issue and image dimensions, offers an ideal message in which to evaluate the intersection of viewers’ ageist attitudes and evaluations of John McCain. Using a pre-post, quasi-experimental design, this study investigates the influence of watching a presidential debate on viewers’ ageist attitudes and overall image evaluation of John McCain. Analyzing national debate viewing data collected during the three 2008 presidential debates, results indicate that John McCain’s debate performance was at least somewhat successful in moderating young citizens’ pre-debate ageist attitudes of McCain. Furthermore, greater ageism among young citizens was found to be a significant factor in predicting a more negative post-debate image evaluation of John McCain; and interesting differences in ageist attitudes were also found based on gender and partisan affiliation.

Authors

• Mitchell McKinney, Univ of Missouri, Columbia

• Darin Gully, Univ of Missouri, Columbia