History of the Project

The concept began in 1992 when Diana Carlin, who is a professor of communication studies, and several of her colleagues from across the nation, conducted extensive research on voter response to the presidential debates. From the research, they concluded that citizens learned as much from discussions held after debates as they did from watching the debates themselves. That led to the formation of DebateWatch '96 and sponsorship by the CPD. DebateWatch is now in its fourth presidential cycle.

RIC broke all national attendance records for DebateWatch in 2004 with over 800 citizens participating in the event.