As presidential races change, media coverage must adapt

Long TV interviews with candidates would serve voters better than televised debates.

from the June 12, 2007 edition

Page 2 of 2

Page 1 | 2

But when you multiply the number of candidates two or three times, the flaws of these debate formats become more pronounced.

Consider that if even every single minute of last week's two-hour Republican debate was devoted to candidates' responses, each candidate would get only about twelve minutes total to answer all the questions posed.

In last Tuesday's Repub-lican debate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee didn't get his first question until 15 minutes in and didn't get his second until 21 minutes after that. After the Democrats' debate on June 3, presidential hopeful and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd put up a debate "Talk Clock" on his website showing that the person on stage with the third longest speaking time was … CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer.

Poke fun at Wolf for being long-winded if you like, but when you have eight candidates and one person moderating, that host is going to get a large amount of air- time. It also may be, less defensibly, that the host network is also using these events to promote their people and network.

Regardless, an early problem for the media going into 2008 is that the game has changed, but the press has not. News organizations are trying to apply the same models that worked for them in the past to a new reality, and so far it looks clunky.

It may be time for mainstream media to think of new strategies for handling a changing world. For example, maybe instead of debates, broadcast outlets should consider airing a long interview with each contender. Maybe an evening of long profile pieces ticking through where each candidate stands and who he or she is would be in order. Or perhaps the networks could have different debates dig deeper into single issues. But that would require rival channels to coordinate.

As the race goes on, this need for a new approach is likely to come up again – and not just about debates.

Campaigns are changing fast. There is a whole world of issues the media didn't have to consider eight years ago. New media technologies have made blogs and social networking sites into tools and weapons, and campaigns have developed the ability to microtarget specific kinds of voters with specific messages.

At some point the press is going to have to change, too. Maybe 2008 will be the year, but so far it doesn't look like it.

• Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, writes on media issues. E-mail him at Dante Chinni.

1 | Page 2