The second presidential debate of 2008 filled Columbia 150 Tuesday night with 270 freshmen journalism students holding iClickers and muttering to each other about how they thought the candidates did.
The event, “Rate the Debate 2008,” was coordinated by Mass Media and Society professors Tiffany Gallicano, Harsha Gangadharbatla and Michael Werner.
Each student registered an iClicker for extra credit, and at the end of the debate the professors displayed a series of multiple choice questions. For each question, the students selected their answer on a keypad and the results were instantly displayed on the screen in graphs that showed numbers and percentages for each vote.

During the debate, some students used cutting-edge technology to voice their thoughts about the event, including four freshmen: Sarah Miller, who took photos that will be posted on Facebook; Steven Anderson, who filmed a video that will be uploaded to Facebook and YouTube; Hari Khalsa, who spent the debate updating the UORatetheDebate Twitter channel; and Richard Stutsman and Jessica McKain, who kept blogs.
Local media, including the television station KVAL, showed up to cover Rate the Debate. Many faculty members from the School of Journalism and Communication, including Dean Tim Gleason, attended the event and voiced their support.
“I think it’s an important event in that everything that raises awareness is important,” Gleason said. “It’s a good example of the energy of these new professors.”
The debate was broadcast in front of the lecture hall on a screen, via a computer that streamed it on Hulu, a Web site that streams television shows. Students watched the debate straight through, not pausing for questions. They sounded like a crowd at the movies; there was much laughter, some clapping and isolated booing.
When it came time to vote for the debate winner, students used the iClickers to express their opinions – and most seemed to agree. 65 percent believed Barack Obama won the debate, while only 12 percent said John McCain won. When polled, most students said they considered the candidates’ style and response to issues when deciding who won. 71 percent said Obama had better style and 59 percent said he had better substance.
The only category in which McCain won the students over was negative advertising: 54 percent said he did it more than Obama. Only 7 percent said Obama did more negative advertising than McCain.
“Obama focused a lot more on the issues instead of attacking McCain, which was the point of the thing,” one student observed via the live microphone that was passed through the audience after each polling question.
Another student wasn’t so kind. “Basically, McCain was a mess,” he said.
Overall, the students found using the iClickers enhanced their experience watching the debate. Freshman Lauren Ward said she wasn’t sure technology like this would be useful on every subject, “but for this kind of thing – yes.”
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