Camera work shapes perception

German study finds visual bias in analysis of 5 „chancellor“ TV debates

 

 

 

 

True objectivity in televised political debates should be reflected also in the very same covering by cameras. Particularly in visual media it is not sufficient at all to maintain equality between candidates only by supervising the speaking time or by raising the very same questions by the interviewers. These are the conclusions drawn by German researchers after having found visual biases in those 5 TV debates from 2002 – 2017 where candidates fought for the chancellery.

According to their analysis politicians of the CDU have been there depicted by means of the cameras (more movements, more zoom-ins, more close-ups) more dynamic than their respective opponents of the SPD.  And once, in 2009, it was the extremely static camera work per se that made viewers judge the debate between Angela Merkel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier as dull beyond average.

Hence the German scientists recommend to literally keep an eye on the potentials of visual bias during TV debates.

Maier/Glogger/Bast, „Is there a visual bias in televised debates? Evidence from Germany, 2002–2017“, in: Visual Communication, vol. 22, issue 2, May 2023, pp. 221-242.

From the practice:

Press speakers do know meanwhile that addressing the camera work before TV debates is key. But how much can debaters rely on that? Of course supervisors of TV debates can ask their staff behind the cameras to keep even more a balance in the way they depict actors on stage. Still I think in this context the idea of a 100% equal treatment is an illusion. Camera operators not only act, but react to things happening in the studio, too.

So any politician does have great a many opportunities to present himself/herself as a dynamic person: nonverbally by gestures and movements and by the presentation of things which underline their words or verbally by vivid examples and an attentive personal dialogue with the interviewer or the opponent which comes across always as much more dynamic than standing texts.