Tune in for biggest show on Earth

Do you plan to watch today’s first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?

It will not be on New Zealand broadcast television but stuff.co.nz is streaming the full debate, which starts at 2pm (NZ time).

If you do, you will be part of what former White House adviser Paul Begala has predicted will be ‘‘the most watched event in human history’’. ’’Bigger than the moon landing, the World Cup, the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the latest royal wedding!’’ he said.

In a recent poll, 73 per cent of registered voters in the US said they were at least somewhat likely to watch part of the debate, which would be 106 million people. That would beat the most-watched presidential debate to date, the 1980 showdown between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, which drew 80 million. For comparison, Barak Obama’s two presidential debates averaged 66 million viewers.

But 2016’s media landscape is very different to that of 1980, or even 2008 or 2012. Many more people will watch clips on social media than will watch the full debate. And given the algorithms that drive your newsfeed, or the self-selection that governs who you follow, your impression of the debate is likely to conform to what you already believe.

Right-wing media outlets will serve up clips that purport to show Trump’s best lines or Clinton’s gaffes, and vice versa. In the echo chamber of social media, you are unlikely to encounter an opinion that challenges your preconceptions.

Even those who watch the full debate will be denied the cut and thrust that the term ‘‘debate’’ implies. Ever since the first televised presidential election debate in 1960, candidates don’t reply to questions from each other, but instead to questions from reporters or a moderator, making the process more a parallel press conference than a debate.

This year the 90-minute debate is split into six 15-minute segments. Questions will focus on three broad themes – ’’America’s Direction’’, ‘‘Achieving Prosperity’’ and ‘‘Securing America.’’ The moderator will open each segment with a question. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond and each will then be allowed to reply to the other’s response. The moderator will use the remaining time for follow-up questions.

In 1960, the US networks wanted Kennedy and Nixon to clash directly but the candidates refused, and despite repeated efforts to get candidates to engage by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which oversees the intensely negotiated debate rules, candidates have continued to insist on a tightly scripted format that leaves little room for thinking on their feet.

The lack of any real engagement is especially important this year, when Trump has made his mark by being prepared to serve up attention-getting whoppers. In the face of a mandatory silent audience, an opponent whose key challenge is to present herself as likeable, and a moderator who will be reluctant to make himself the news by tackling a candidate’s truthfulness, who would bet against Trump inflaming his largest audience with yet another outrageous claim?

It is set to be edge-of-the-armchair viewing.