A MEETING OF GIANTS: PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES AND U.S. WEB BROWSERS IN 2016

Abstract

Election debates in the USA have a great impact on the population. In spite of their difference from other types of political communication, debates in the USA give the people an opportunity for a ‘direct meeting’ with the candidates. Current analysis verifies whether debates in the 2016 presidential election affected web browsers with regard to further information on the candidates. Three hypotheses are taken into account: (I) due to the great audience at the debates, Trump and Clinton may have had their visibility enlarged; (II) debates do not boost interest by web browsers for the candidates for vice-president; (III) since post-debate research showed that Clinton “won” the three debates, she, rather than Trump, may have had her visibility enlarged because of the debates. Results reveal that 25% of search for candidates for the presidency by web browsers may be attributed to the debates, corroborating the first hypothesis. There is no mathematical co-relationship between search due to debates and search for candidates for the vice-presidency, corroborating the second hypothesis. The third hypothesis was jointly adherent since the effect of the debate (as an independent variable) was slightly more significant to underscore search for the candidate Hilary Clinton by web browsers.