PUBLIC SPEAKING IN THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES THROUGH MEDIA EYES

Speech making by candidates in the 1992 presidential primaries was med iated by television journalists more than ever before. The result of t his virtual replacement of campaign oratory with the very different rh etoric of the electronic press is a thorough devaluation of oratory fo r television viewers, for whom these speeches perform none of their cl assical functions. The candidate's verbal expression becomes irrelevan t, despite the fact that it conveys many important things from detaile d proposals to facets of personality that later prove their value to i ndications of speech context. This study examines these manifestations in evening news campaign coverage by ABC, CBS, and NBC, with brief co mparisons to C-SPAN, during the 1992 primary season.