Masses and political communication campaigns

"I am a silent observer but a sensitive analyst of political communication campaigns and that is my leisurely function which I have cultivated over the years," said my friend a freelance writer and lecturer in social sciences, who had a heap of information collected over the years on his table as well as in box files well maintained such as paper cuttings video and audio tapes photos and interviews.

He started with a comment on posters and cut outs with reference to local political campaigns.

"The posters are a must, but that should be designed keeping in mind the basic factor of creating an awareness about the candidate and not about anything else and it should not be a just eulogy or a praise or a word of blessings but a sharp comment."

Then he pulled out an Indian poster with the photograph of Indira Gandhi with the words, 'We are for Indira, Indira is India'. Then he also pulled out some local posters with Sinhala words and photos of politicians.

"Some of these wordings are over hacked and we need to go into new innovations." He commented. "The wordings should come from creators, who could think in terms of a political conscience and not by mere propagandists who are just lackeys of politicians.

Politicians are fond of spending lakhs of rupees on their poster campaigns but the actual fact is that the amount is not seen utilised properly thus a poster campaign if not made use of properly will be money wasted, but nevertheless be an eye opener of a sort."

Then he went on to explain the conscience behind a political campaign. "I feel that the cultural susceptibilities matter very much. Do you remember the Marayuddhaya (war of the mara) campaign on the part of the supporters of SWRD in the fifties.

It was an excellent campaign utilising the print medium to its brim at a time when there was no television. Even the Panchamaha Balavegaya campaign with the words 'Sangha Veda Guru Govi Kamkaru' was a haunting slogan used in the poster campaign and later used in many ways silencing the opponents.

This is what is known as innovative and creative form of communication addressed to the mass conscience, which is a must in political campaigns.

Now that we have television as one of the most powerful media, the strength of it should be utilised properly in the way that is done in some other countries. There are new findings regarding this aspect," said the learned friend handing over a report with a conclusion that ran as follows which I read with interest and would like to share it with my readers.

"In the face of the great emphasis that is placed by the political candidates and their campaign managers on television appearances, and in view of the fact, that the candidates who spend the most on television advertising appear to win, it may be rash to downgrade television.

Yet there is growing evidence that although large proportions of voters are exposed to the airing of political campaign messages on television, as for instance on television debates between contending presidential and vice presidential candidates, it is the newspapers that that tend to determine the salience of issues.

Conceivably, newspaper editors and reporters are themselves influenced in their judgement by the volume of television exposure."

I should note that the concluding paragraph was one of the most striking points I gathered in the said report. I wish to quote it " Furthermore, voting is a short term activity that requires no long term attitudinal build-up, much as we would like to think of the vote as a considered judgement on the part of the electorate.

Television may have a powerful short term effect, ideally suited to the quick action requirements in politics. It may therefore be a useful medium immediately before an election. But for long- range effects, newspapers still are most instrumental in determining saliences."

This may be a fitting factor in our local conditions for the print medium has its inherent qualities linked with the cultural conditions.

Then our discussion centred round the interpersonal communication factors, a factor either deliberately forgotten by the candidates or forced to take over a more powerful medium to communicate. "It is a matter of having a word with your voters," is a theory that works, all round the globe.

"A political communication campaign should also have a sensitive creative think tank consisting of not only supporters of the candidate but also the creators of various other forms of creations like painting poetry story writing broadcasting and innovative writing. This needs relaxed thinking which is part of the creative communication training.

The questioning at the interviewing process of candidates should also be rather creative than rigid as is normally observed. The questions have to be framed creatively and clearly. As is normally seen body language matters much in the visual medium and the verbal mannerisms matter much in the sound medium."

Then our discussion was focused on to the creation of short and brief political messages which is one of the most fascinating items in a campaign.

"The language has to be simple and interpersonal devoid of cliche s and slogans," the learned friend commented and added. The communication theory of the political scientist Harold D Lasswell, "Who says what to whom with what effect?" should be taken here as the guiding principle. It is believed that "the more personal a medium the more efficiently persuasive it is".

Thus in terms of cultural susceptibilities, face-to-face communication is more effective than television (or any other electronic media), which is more effective than film radio and print. But these are some dependable factors and one cannot for certain say that the masses are ignorant entities."

I thanked my learned friend and left his residence.