Forum Comments – a Means of Embedding the Effects of the TV Debate in the 2009 Presidential Campaign in Romania

Taking into account the TV ratings, the final debate represents the most visible event during presidential campaigns. We agree with Sidney Kraus’s opinion, according to which the importance of a debate results from the symbolic stake that it has both for the candidates and for the (potential) voters. Placed face to face, the two candidates introduce themselves and ask directly for the voters’ consent. After receiving the information, the voters decide whom (not) to legitimate for a coming mandate. The literature on debates highlights the cognitive, behavioural efects of evaluating the candidates’ image and also the latent effects of the debate upon the candidates and the democratic process. Having as empirical data the forum comments (n = 1278) upon the final debate from the 2009 Romanian presidential debate, we have tried to provide a salience of the effects (cognitive, behavioural, latent, and candidate image evaluation) discursively embedded within the voters’ comments. The content analysis provided to the forum comments showed a prevalence of the candidate image evaluation (75%), followed by cognitive effects (10%), latent effects (10%), and behavioural effects (5%).