Rate Top French Politicians Live

How are politicians received by the viewers? Who is the most persuasive, and why? How do televised showdowns affect viewers? And who won the debate? These questions are the focal point of the "debat-o-meter" project of political science and information technology students at the University of Freiburg. In conjunction with an evaluation of the presidential election in France, the research team is seeking people in France interested in using the debat-o-meter to provide live assessments of the TV debate between the top candidates of French political parties on 20 March 2017. The web app developed at the University of Freiburg allows participants to evaluate top French politicians live and in real time as these candidates debate on television, while simultaneously receiving an assessment of survey results.

Televised debates between leading politicians are the big media events that feature in every election campaign. The politicians can take up positions, exchange arguments and try to win voters over to their point of view in front of an audience of hundreds of thousands or even a million viewers. The televised discussion offers viewers the opportunity to directly compare the candidates and their positions. At the same time, the debates are also an entertaining format for political education and information.

The French television station TF1 will broadcast the debate from 9 p.m. on Monday, 20 March 2017. Short, anonymous surveys done before and after the debate will take place in addition to the live evaluation. All participants need is a smartphone or another kind of terminal such as a tablet or a computer. Following the debate the researchers will make the survey results and evaluations available to the participants. All those who took part will be included in a prize drawing for tablet computer.

The researchers are also looking for people interested in using the debat-o-meter to evaluate leading candidates in real time during a televised debate that is being held in conjunction with state elections in Saarland. The SR Fernsehen station will broadcast the debate on Thursday, 16 March at 8:15 p.m. In this case as well there will be an anonymous on-line survey, the analysis of which will be provided to the participants after the study. A prize drawing for a tablet computer will also be held for those who took part.

For more information on the project and registration:
www.debatometer.com (for Germany)
www.debatometer.eu (for France)

Debat-o-meter in the state elections for Saarland [de]:
https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm/2017/pm.2017-03-06.27


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal
Department of Political Science
Tel.: 0761/203-9361
E-Mail: info@debatometer.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/debatometer

Prof. Dr. Bernd Becker
Department of Computer Science (INF)
Tel.: 0761/203-8141
E-Mail: becker@informatik.uni-freiburg.de