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The Presidential Election Will Elect The President And Vice President Of The United States

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Literature Review: On November 8, 2016, the United States’ 58th presidential elections will take place, where voters will elect the President and the Vice President of the United States. One of the customs of Presidential elections is the debates held between the candidates prior to that event. The topics discussed in these debates are of controversial nature and their role is to target and convince undecided and independent voters - those not belonging to a specific political party. Presidential debates are usually held towards the last phases in the election cycle, right after nominations. These debates are broadcast live on television and radio, and they draw over 80 million viewers (Shapiro, 2012). As we will see in this review, many …show more content…

Many believe that delivery and content work together (Patterson, Churchill and Burger and Powell, 1992), but others believe that delivery has a bigger impact on decision making than content (Burgoon, Birk and Pfau, 1990). This study will deal with an experiment that will try to prove who people will vote for in elections if we have two candidates; one who has a meaningless yet well-delivered speech or a candidate with a rich but poorly delivered speech. According to Bowers, “That delivery affects listeners is both a matter of common sense and a result verified by a number of experiments”. Bowers also argued that changes in vocals during debates, affect changes in attitudes when the candidates are known and successful. However, as cited by Bowers himself, he points out that Bettinghaus argues that “delivery is a significant variable in bringing about attitude change toward concepts as well as towards speakers when unknown, “live” speakers are the source”, meaning that they only have an impact when the candidates are unknown or new to the political environment. Bowers comes to a conclusion that a speaker’s status as well known or his success are both related to characteristics of delivery. (Bowers, 1965). Bowers, however, is not the only one who talked about the importance of delivery characteristics, way long before him; Aristotle defined good delivery as

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