: Into the lion’s den…
A format change in tonight’s Democratic debate will favor those with the best interpersonal communication skills. So-called “average” citizens–undecided voters–will ask unscripted questions. These nearly always turn out to be tougher and more interesting than those asked by the press. Maybe this debate won’t be so predictable.
The Arizona Republic reports:
The nine presidential contenders will step away from their lecterns and be lowered from the front portion of the Orpheum Theatre stage to sit eye to eye with voters in a town-hall setting.
The lowering bit sounds like an unnecessary dramatic twist for TV–a symbolic lowering into the lion’s den I suppose. I’ll be paying particular attention to their questions and will offer a comparison with press questions tomorrow.
Structural biases
An example of journalism’s structural biases, courtesy of Andrew Cline. Cline makes an argument, implicitly here, as well as explicitly elsewhere (see Lex’s point) that journalists should have competence in rhetoric (that is, the theory of rhetoric) an…