Students will work in groups to evaluate the 2016 presidential and vice presidential debates. Each group will post their analysis to the Presidential Debates blog on the course website. They will present their findings and help to lead a class discussion of the debate on the Monday following the debate.

In analyzing each candidate’s debate performance, students may choose to employ Wordle. They may choose to embed clips of the debate in their blog post. Each group’s analysis should also include a digest of pundits’ responses to the debate and available information about public reaction to the debate (e.g., polling data).

In-class presentations should be limited to 15 minutes, followed by discussion.

DEBATE SCHEDULE
(more information about livestreaming the debates to come):

First presidential debate: Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

The first debate will consist of six 15-minute segments selected by the moderator and announced ahead of the debate.

Vice presidential debate: Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, at Longwood University in Farmville, Va.

The vice presidential debate will be divided into nine 10-minute segments.

Second presidential debate: Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016, at Washington University in St. Louis

The second presidential debate will be a town meeting, where half of the questions will come from participants and the other from the moderator. The moderator’s questions will be based on public interest topics determined via social media and other sources.

Third presidential debate: Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The third presidential debate will have the same format as the first, with six 15-minute segments.

Here is a sample word cloud, based on Donald Trump’s speech in New Hampshire on August 25, 2016: