By Fatima Hassan

Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump locked horns at the first United States presidential debate on Monday, Sept. 26, prompting Northwestern University in Qatar’s community to come together.

NU-Q held a panel on Wednesday, Sept. 28 to discuss this heated debate between the presidential candidates. This hour long event was attended by 60 people: a mix of students, faculty and staff.

Associate Professor Banu Akdenizil, Assistant Professor Jocelyn Sage Mitchell and Director of Strategic Communications Rob Wood sat as panelists. Mary Dedinsky, director of the journalism program and associate professor at NU-Q, acted as panel moderator.

Dedinsky began the discussion by emphasizing the popularity of these debates worldwide.  According to her, it was the most watched U.S. presidential debate, with an audience of at least 84 million people.

Each panelist analyzed a specific part and theme of the debate before showing a short clip from it.

Akdenizil began by discussing how the media plays a vital role in portraying the image of the presidential nominees.

“Citizens are left out,” she said. “It is the media that starts to influence the campaign.”

These debates also reinforce the pre-existing image of the candidates in the minds of the voters, according to Akdenizil. She described them as boxing matches as opposed to discussions of ideas. Even the reaction of the crowd adds to the feel of it being a spectacle, she said.

To prove her point, Akdenizil showed the last six minutes of the debate, which were rife with arguments as to whether one candidate was physically and experientially better than the other.

Wood showed a clip of the candidates debating easing taxes for the rich versus creating jobs for the middle class. He urged the audience to notice the way each candidate emotionally appealed to the audience and how successful they were, barring any fact-checking.

“Both candidates attempt to connect with the audience over economic anxiety,” he said. “Watch it with two things in mind: Which one feels right, leaving out the facts and thinking of the feeling? And what does it feel like to the audience member who has economic anxiety?”

Mitchell chose to tackle the foundation of these debates, questioning how and why they started to be held in the first place.

“This is a national stage where one in every three American voter says debate performances are very important in voting,” she said.

She further emphasized that Clinton and Trump were vying for the 20 percent of voters who are undecided and could sway the results in either direction.

“Each candidate needs to paint a positive picture of themselves and a negative picture of the opponent,” she said.

The floor was then opened to audience questions. These ranged from discussions about the fate of depressed voters to why certain important topics, such as the tumultuous conditions in the Middle East and debt-free education, were not asked in the debate.

Mitchell pointed out Clinton’s way of appealing to depressed and dejected voters, saying she emphasized her own achievements as opposed to speaking negatively about Trump.

Two more presidential debates are scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. These will be more likely to cover other vital topics such as climate change and education, the panelists said.

Sana Hussain, a journalism freshman at NU-Q, said she enjoyed the analysis given by each of the panelists as well as the audience Q&A. 

“I looked at the debate with the perspective of the media and how that could influence the audience’s perception of the candidate,” she said.