International Journal of Communication: Special Issue Call for Papers: “Presidential Debates Across the Americas: Analyzing Candidate Performance in Hybrid Media Settings”
Guest editors:
Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin Madison
Martin Echeverría, Autonomous University of Puebla
Erik P. Bucy, Texas Tech University
Televised presidential debates are a defining feature of electoral campaigns in the Americas, both North and South (Druckman, 2003). These debates share several characteristics that are deeply tied to the region’s political and media systems. First, the presidential system, dominant across the continent, centers campaigns on the figure and personal style of the competing candidates. This system places an extraordinary focus on individual performance and charisma, with debates becoming a critical moment for candidates to showcase leadership qualities, including a sense of mediated authenticity, policy fluency, dominance over the competition, and personal appeal (Alexander, 2011; Bucy, 2016; Moffitt, 2016).
Moreover, the strong presence of commercialized broadcast news across the region plays a significant role in shaping how presidential debates are presented and consumed. Commercial television networks, driven by audience ratings, often prioritize spectacle over substance, leading to (at times) highly dramatized and visually captivating debate formats, including split screen presentations of the candidates in continuous close-ups. In a visual political culture that thrives on confrontation, these “in-your-face” displays amplify emotional appeals, creating a media environment where dramatic moments highlighting conflicting ideas and clashing personas often overshadow policy discussions (Cho et al., 2009; Mutz, 2015).
In recent years, the rise of populism and the prominence of extreme ideologies have further transformed the nature of presidential debates. Candidates increasingly use these platforms to perform populist styles of communication—direct, confrontational, and often polarizing—challenging established norms of debate civility and appealing directly to viewer emotion and identity (Bucy et al., 2020; Herbst, 2010; Norris & Inglehart, 2019). These elements have turned debates into high-stakes events that reveal much about the intersection of politics, media, and public discourse.
Finally, in the digital age, televised debates are also consumed through social media platforms, and the affordances of these digital spaces open several avenues for exposure, conversation, and amplification. By facilitating interaction, sharing, and commenting on presidential debates—whether by dual screening in real time, or commenting afterward—social media adds a layer of engagement, meaning, and message resonance to an already complex format (Joo et al., 2019; Shah et al., 2016).
Given these considerations, this call for papers invites scholars to examine presidential debates across the Americas through the lenses of visual performance and discursive engagement, exploring how they reflect broader trends in contemporary political communication while informing a nuanced understanding of how national context both promotes and constrains political performance.
We welcome contributions that employ a wide range of methodological approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, computational, visual, and textual methods of analysis. We also encourage scholars to analyze social media activity, whether examining patterns of real-time interaction or message resonance over time. Submissions may focus on comparative analyses or single-country case studies, with the aim of understanding how this format from the mid-20th century has adapted to the political trends and performative developments across the Americas, North and South, in the 21st century (Schroeder, 2008; Seiter & Weger, 2020).
Potential topics for submission include, but are not limited to:
- The role of populism and extreme ideologies in shaping debate dynamics
- Commercialized broadcast news’ impact on the format and tone of debates
- The evolution of debate formats in response to new media and audience behaviors
- Comparative analysis of candidate behavior during debates, including facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, and other movements.
- Cross-national analysis of debate strategies and their effectiveness in different national contexts
- Visual and computational approaches to analyzing candidate messaging and behavior, along with audience engagement
- Social media engagement, interaction and response to televised debates
This call for papers for a special issue of the International Journal of Communication seeks to highlight work across the Americas, especially research examining candidate performance in comparative and historical perspective. According to the latest Google Scholar statistics, IJoC ranks 7th among all Humanities journals and 9th among all Communication journals worldwide.
Submissions instructions and important dates:
Final submissions should adhere to the journal’s word limit of 6,000–8,900 words for research articles. This word count is all-inclusive, encompassing the title, abstract, references, footnotes, and any other components of the manuscript.
Additionally, submissions should be formatted in accordance with the guidelines set out in the APA 6th Edition Style Guide, as well as the guidelines of the International Journal of Communication.
For consideration in the special issue, full articles following these guidelines should be submitted by April 30th, 2025 to mcrc@journalism.wisc.edu.
All final publications will be free of charge and accessible to readers as open access.
For further inquiries or clarifications, please feel free to contact the guest editors:
- Dhavan Shah: dshah@wisc.edu
- Martin Echeverria: martin.echeverria@correo.buap.mx
- Erik Bucy: erik.bucy@ttu.edu
Timeframe:
Call for papers: December 10, 2024
Submission deadline: April 30, 2025
Peer review completion: October 31, 2025
Final publication: June 1, 2026
Editors’ bios:
Dr. Dhavan V. Shah (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) is the Jack M. McLeod Professor of Communication Research and Louis A. and Mary E. Maier-Bascom Chair in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is Director of the Mass Communication Research Center and Research Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. His research focuses on (1) the influence of message framing on social judgments and behaviors, (2) the communication dynamics that drive civic participation and shape social and institutional trust, and (3) the role of digital therapeutics in cancer, aging, and addiction management. This work has generated six coauthored and coedited books and over 200 articles and chapters.
Dr. Martin Echeverría (PhD. University of Seville, Spain) is the Head and Researcher of the Center for Political Communication Studies, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico. Co-Chair of the Political Communication Section of IAMCR, member of the board of the Political Communication Research Section of IPSA. He is the author (with Frida V. Rodelo) of the award-winning book, Political entertainment in post authoritarian democracies. Humor and the Mexican Media. His research focuses on the mediatization of politics, media systems in Latin America, media performance, political entertainment and media effects.
Dr. Erik P. Bucy is the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents Professor of Strategic Communication in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University, where he teaches and conducts research on misinformation, news literacy, visual and nonverbal communication, and public opinion about the press. He is the author (with Maria Elizabeth Grabe) of award-winning book, Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections. In 2023-24, Bucy was a US-UK Fulbright Scholar at Loughborough University, where he is now a Visiting Professor. He has held research fellowships and visiting positions at the University of Oxford, London School of Economics, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, UCLA, and Dartmouth College.