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CNN says graph shows what viewers think, but can we digest all that?

The Perception Analyzer will analyze the reactions of about 30 “uncommitted” Ohio voters tonight. (CNN / October 6, 2008)

The two people on TV are arguing, but you’re transfixed by the colorful lines squiggling across the bottom of the screen like dueling EKGs.

How fascinating! How distracting!

As it has for the two previous campaign debates, CNN will put its moving graphs on full, hypnotic display Tuesday night when Barack Obama and John McCain meet for their second faceoff. CNN’s focus group will have about 30 “uncommitted” Ohio voters turning the dials of a Perception Analyzer to register whether they like what each speaker is saying. Those reactions set in motion the lines labeled “Men” (green) and “Women” (orange).

So CNN viewers wind up weighing their opinions against those of strangers—all while the words are still leaving the debaters’ mouths. Reflection is not an option.

“Those lines add to the value of watching the debate,” says CNN election coverage producer David Bohrman. The squiggles are new to CNN. The now-defunct CNNfn experimented with full-screen graphs four years ago, and the network’s Headline News channel tried them in a primary debate last year too. Bohrman says viewers now are “used to dealing with deconstructed information coming at them.”

University of Chicago psychologist Howard Nusbaum says your brain can’t devote its full attention to what the debaters are saying and what you’re seeing. “It becomes as if you’re skimming the debate,” he says.

Viewers may also be swayed by the human desire to seek consensus, says Washington, D.C.-based psychologist Alan Lipman. “It’s kind of like the difference between watching a movie and watching a movie with commentary,” he said. “It’s going to affect your perception and beliefs.”

But Frank Luntz, who runs similar debate focus groups for Fox News (which simulcasts the results only online), defends the meters: “I think people are as interested in what other Americans are thinking as they are in their own reactions.”

Still, thinking for yourself is most important, right?

Um, let’s check the line.

– By Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune

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