Immediate and Delayed Responses to a Carter-Ford Debate: Assessing Public Opinion

The televised Carter-Ford debate elicited consistently morefavorable responses among young voters viewing in a lecturehall under controlled conditions and responding immediatelyafterward than among a comparable group who viewed it in settingsof their own choice and whose reactions were obtained only aftera lapse of four to seven days. Where the immediately-after reactionsdivided very much along partisan lines, the gains Ford registeredamong respondents of all political persuasions in the week followingare attributed to contamination by published poll results aboutthe Carter performance, criticism of the debate format, andother media coverage of the debate. Such findings underEne thefutility of tracing a particular response during a campaignto a specific message without taking into account the totalcommunication environment.     

Polling on Watergate: The Battle for Public Opinion

How do polls become part of the political process through whichdecisions are made and issues resolved? Case studies of thedevelopment and outcome of political controversies, like Watergate,can go a long way toward clarification of the direct and indirectimpacts of the polls.