Party Conventions

Most Party Convention viewers tune in along party lines. This graph shows a breakdown of who watched the RNC and DNC Conventions on TV.

Based on this graph, describe the political affiliation of the typical viewer of a political convention.

In the past, big political conventions were gatherings where party faithfuls sorted out who would be their nominee. In the modern era, candidates have-in nearly every case-already been chosen as results of primaries, and their nomination at the convention is just a formality. So these prime-time televised events are basically campaign events.

With that in mind, and using the graph, what has happened to political party viewership over the past few decades?

Based off this graph and the others that you have analyzed, respond to the following claim (do you agree, disagree, and why):

It probably won't matter where either party holds its 2024 presidential nominating convention, who speaks, or what they even say. All that matters is who watches the convention.

Some media scholars say that most Americans live in political echo chambers - Democrats watch liberal news sources and Democratic Conventions. Republicans watch conservative news sources and Republican Conventions. In other words, we live in little media bubbles where we basically just hear what we want to hear and don't listen to many diverging options.

Based on what you have seen so far, do you think Americans live in echo chambers? Explain

Make a claim on the prompt: Do Conventions actually make an electoral difference?