The Audience Decides; Patrick Stewart Discusses His Book on Presidential Debates

This month’s Short Talks from the Hill features Patrick Stewart, professor of political science.

This summer, Stewart published The Audience Decides: Applause-Cheering, Laughter, and Booing during Debates in the Trump Era. Stewart argues that both major political parties have largely abdicated their responsibility to identify and vet the best candidates to lead their respective party and, ultimately, the country.

What sets the book apart is its focus on the influential role played by the studio audience during debates through their applause, cheering, laughter and booing of candidates and how this in turn affects reporters and everyone watching at home.

“The Audience Decides is an attempt to understand one of the most important parts of our presidential campaign system: presidential debates,” Stewart explains in the podcast. “Our debates are the one time during the electoral cycle that we’re able to take a look at our candidates and get an unbiased look at who they are. They’re not stage-managed, they aren’t pre-formed, they aren’t already edited into a specific sort of marketing brand. During the debates we get to see them and how they react to questions and to comments in real time. There’s no hiding from this, so watching them and watching how they respond and, importantly, how the audience responds with their laughter, their cheering, applause and booing, tells us so much more about them than what they would have us believe.”

You can listen to Stewart’s podcast by clicking on the link above or by visiting arkansasresearch.uark.edu, the home of research and economic development news at the U of A.

And remember, you can now listen to Short Talks programming wherever you get your podcasts. Previous podcasts can be found at the link above or by visiting arkansasresearch.uark.edu.

Thank you for listening!

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