Debate Diary: It seems like the media treat debates as sporting events rather than a news event

This is part of a series of articles examining and explaining the debate process in preparation for the U.S. Senate debate between Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore. The two will debate live Oct. 3 in Roanoke. Read related articles.
There is a natural drama to debates. In some ways, yes, they are similar to athletic events. Participants are opponents and on Election Day, one candidate will prevail. It is also true that the news media builds drama and excitement for debates and always tend to declare a “winner.” There are three phases to debate coverage. The first phase is the “debate about the debates” where stories focus on probability of debates, the formats and number of debates. In this case, it was the outcry of editorialists and op-ed writers that criticized the Warner Campaign for not being willing to participate in a statewide debate that ultimately motivated the campaign to reconsider. The second phase is handicapping the debate noting the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates as well as what they need to do in the debate to impact their candidacies. Finally, the news media provide reactions and analysis following the debate. Campaigns have their surrogates available to the media to announce how well their candidate performed. Research demonstrates that media coverage of debates is an importance source for voters of candidate information.