John Koch

Media Appearances

• Are sports fans tuning out?

  “A lot of us thought with sports being around during the pandemic, a lot of people would watch sports – and kind of counterintuitively, the numbers went down,’’ says Vanderbilt communications professor John Koch, a senior lecturer and director of debate whose areas of interest are public memory and the intersection of political culture, rhetoric and sports.

  June 25th, 2021

• 3 things to watch for in Pence-Harris vice presidential debate

  Most of the post-debate focus groups and polling indicate a desire among voters for the campaigns to discuss the issues and explain their vision for the next four years, said John P. Koch, director of debate at Vanderbilt University. "This debate then is an opportunity, which was lost last week, to speak directly to voters and ask for their vote," Koch said. "Given the president’s diagnosis has taken him off the campaign trail, the stakes in this debate may now be higher for Pence. He likely needs to utilize the debate to reset the campaign after the events of the last week. One way to do that would be to set the tone in the debate by directly addressing the questions, focusing on campaign issues and themes, and drawing contrasts with the Biden-Harris ticket. The stakes are likely not as high for Harris, since the Biden-Harris campaign has proceeded as planned this last week, but I expect her to do much of the same."

  October 7th, 2020

• Yes, Biden and Trump are scheduled to debate again. But what will that look like?

  John Koch, director of debate at Vanderbilt University, said in an interview Wednesday that he was hopeful the nation would avoid a repeat of the first debate when the candidates meet for their town hall. “It shifts to voters asking questions and I would expect the candidates to be more respectful to average voters than they were to Chris Wallace, and attempt to answer those questions, because I think there’s a lot of risk in acting that way when voters are the ones that are asking the questions," he said.

  September 30th, 2020

• Four things to watch for in Trump-Biden presidential debate

  John P. Koch, director of debate at Vanderbilt University, said during the 2016 campaign season Trump was "successful in debates by creating moments that are memorable, appeal to his base, and control the media narrative following the event." "While Biden will likely be looking to avoid big moments, Trump will be looking to create them," Koch said.

  September 29th, 2020

• Moderators Hold the Center of Debate Stage

  Some experts believe a moderator’s job goes beyond asking questions. “I think the most important job of the moderator is follow-up. When they give an answer, or if there is a debate occurring, to know the appropriate questions to ask in the follow-up,” said John Koch, debate director at Vanderbilt University.

  September 15th, 2020

• 50 years after fists: Who would listen, who would care?

  But another part “speaks to the fact that you don’t have the media gatekeepers you had in 1968,” said John Koch, who teaches a course called ‘Rhetoric, Sports and Society’ at Vanderbilt. “It used to be the media had the sole responsibility of what was salient, worthy of seeing,” Koch said. “Twitter users have that same ability now.”

  October 14th, 2018

• How Should Presidential Debates Change?

  “The debate would start with: Here's the issue or the situation. You have 30 minutes or whatever it is to meet with your consultants and advisers and then we want you to come back with a position,” suggests John Koch, director of debate at Vanderbilt University.

  October 25th, 2020