Some quick notes before I get into the meat of this post: - While part of my responsibility to readers is to provide unbiased information, other NextStageologists work without those bounds:
- I responded to Tex's comment on "Hillary is piloting the space shuttle and Sarah Palin is riding a bicycle". In a nutshell, his interpretation was interesting and revealed more about his thought processes than what was written (points for anybody figuring out how one can tell that "Tex" is male). Anybody else wanting to have a go, be my guest and I'll respond here.
- WindKiller's Designing a Political Language Engine (WindKiller's PWB comment) and What's Happening Up North? comment deserves a post response of its own so stay tuned.
This post will be covering
Here we go...
The Palin-Gibson InterviewsCharles Gibson was using an A13 communication style during the 11 Sept 08 interview. You may remember from Do McCain, Biden, Palin and Obama Think the Way We Do? (Part 2) that Biden, McCain, Obama, Palin, Lehrer and Ifill all used A13 methodologies during the debates so perhaps Charles Gibson's use of A13 had more to do with experience and training than anything else (could it be that A13 is the best communication methodology for people reaching out to a television audience? Food for thought and research, that).
Governor Palin, about a month before the VP debates, was using a K13 communication style. This style's key elements are:
- These people prefer to experience things first-hand
- They base decisions on immediate experience and tend to be negative in nature
- They tend to ignore positive-based information as either unreal or unsubstantiated
- They are attracted to and will focus on demonstrations of problems or difficulties
During the 12 Sept 08 interview Charles Gibson switched to an A9 style and Governor Palin went to an A5. The A9 style can be likened to a more conversational, more intimate form of the A13 style. A5 has
- These people are strongly emotive and can become emotional during conversations
- They are more apt to make decisions when they're based on absolutes (right/wrong, good/bad)
- They tend to have a negative outlook on life and dwell on past failures
- They are very hands on
The "...make decisions when they're based on absolutes (right/wrong, good/bad)" element is often found in individuals with definite religious beliefs.
As goes Gibson so goes the Couric. Katy Couric's communication style on 24 Sept 08 was A13. Unlike Charles Gibson, Ms. Couric stayed with an A13 style for the 25 Sept 08 interview.
Governor Palin's communication styles for these two interviews was A13 followed by A5, thus Governor Palin once again in the second interview demonstrated a tendency towards absolutist views.
One thing we learned in our studies of the 2004 election cycle (see NSE Case Study - Using NextStage's TargetTrack in Political Campaigns, NextStage Political Offering, Predicting Election Outcomes Via NextStage's TargetTrack and Reading Virtual Minds Chapter 4 "Anecdotes of Learning: Politics Aren't HorseRaces Any More") was that communication styles -- especially when they're not capturing a large audience -- are sometimes not as important as understandability, gender communications, education level and other demographic factors.
That recognized, Charles Gibson was reaching pretty much an even mix of males and females in the two interviews; 51/49 M/F on 11 Sept 08 and 53/47 M/F on 12 Sept 08. Likewise, Katy Couric reached 52/48 M/F on 24 Sept 08 and 48/52 M/F on 25 Sept 08. I would credit this to their training and experience as reporters and being on the anchor desk.
Governor Palin's performances were 39/61, 42/58, 49/51 then back to 39/61 on the four days in question. Whatever was going on or being discussed on 11 and 25 Sept 08, Governor Palin intentionally or otherwise wanted to be sure women would take or be on her side.
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