Com 450: Senior Seminar -- Politics and Media

Dr. Janet McMullen 

Campaign Strategy -- Course Notes

Last Updated:  09/30/2002

Reading Assignment: ALL of Powell and Coward, Political Campaign Communication: Inside and Out (2003)  Additional suggested Reading:  Carville and Belagia, Shut  Up....

Q:  To what degree can a campaign consultant affect an election?  (They can help, but can't decide it; can't do anything about advantages that come with already holding an office or the nature of the candidate him/herself. p. 8)

Q:  How is political communication different than ordinary persuasive communication, such as marketing products? 

From Denton and Woodward (1985)

Powell and Coward point out that campaigns have a "one-day-sale" mentality.  Success or failure is determined by what happens on that one day, and while polls taken before hand may offer insight, they don't matter. The only thing that matters is that Tuesday in November (or whenever).

Candidates are different that Charmin or Coca Cola in that they want to create commercials that keep us thinking about those products over a long period of time.  Repetition now, when we're young, may keep us remembering the product slogan for decades of purchasing decisions.  (I still remember several jingles from when I was a pre-teen....Some for products I would never buys..."Winston tastes good, like a [clap, clap] cigarette should."  "You wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent..."  There are more, but I won't bore you...)

There is also a significant difference in what political communication is asking of those to whom it is directed:

The communication is also judged differently because it's held to higher standards

 

 Socialization 

Q:  How are citizens of the U.S. socialized concerning their political responsibilities? Who are the primary socializing agents?

(Family, Media, Political Parties, Peers, Schools)

Be sure you can identify and explain the following political communication models:

The Simple Transmission Model:  Parents pass on their political ideas and loyalties to their children. That transfer of ideas may be partly due to shared experiences in the family. 

Family nature may influence how that works to some degree:  In 1970, R.S. Sigel demonstrated how the nature of communication and attitudes of the family toward political ideas could influence the socialization process.  He identified four types of families based on those characteristics or socialization styles.

I'm not going to hold you responsible for all of the details about these groups, but it is a good idea to understand that inherent characteristics in family attitudes and communication can significantly affect political socialization.  

As you look at these family socialization styles, it's not surprising that young people as a rule have little interest in or knowledge about political issues.  In my generation nearly 50 percent of us went to the poles when we were in college, in 1998, that number was  20%.    According to  a University of Maryland study, only 42 % of those 18-24 who were eligible to vote actually did vote in the 2000 election.  (Christian Science Monitory, 7/1/02)  Total voter turnout for 2000 in federal elections was 51.2%.  

Q: Your authors discuss the social cost of voting?  What is that?     (How hard is it to vote? Register, etc.? Peer acceptance? Cool factor?  Life at risk?)

Q:  What does it mean to "work your strengths" ? 

(Go after those who you have a reasonable expectation of getting based on demographics and psychographics.

This is why we'll see President Bush in Alabama to campaign for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, but not during the presidential election year.  Alabama is a sewn-up state. )

 

Those traditional alliances can change over time, as they have here in Alabama.

Q:  So why is it important to understand how political information is socialized? 

[discuss] 

 

Campaign Strategies   

A clear strategy is necessary for success in elections races, particularly in those above the immediate local level.  Campaign consultants are extremely valuable, but they can't over come the inherent characteristics of their candidate. 

Campaign consulting began in the 1930s, but one of the most interesting early efforts resulted in the first candidacy of Richard Nixon.   The Committee of 100, a group of California republicans, wanted to defeat a Democratic incumbent but had not candidate.  They ran an ad for a candidate in the newspaper and Nixon responded and ultimately won the election after an attack-campaign directed by a political consultant.

Before any successful campaign can be undertaken, the people planning it have to know what they're dealing with.  There are several organized methods of doing such an evaluation: 

EVALUATING THE CAMPAIGN SITUATION TO DEVELOP STRATEGY

1.    One of the most popular approaches is the SWOT approach (see p. 36 in  text) which strives to determine:

 

2.    "Who'll Say What..."  (see Figure 3.1 in text)  In this approach, a grid is developed in which the campaign planners list all of the positive and negative things which could be said about either candidate.

  What will be said about Candidate A What will be said about Candidate B
What Candidate A will say    
What Candidate B will say    

This analysis will allow a campaign planner to anticipate the give and take dialogue of the campaign and to prepare responses for what the opposing candidate will do.  It also allows them to realize what the opposing candidate can NOT say for one reason or another, and to develop strategies to use that for their own benefit.

 

3.    "CAT" Analysis stands for "Contingencies, assumptions and tactics" of a campaign.  An examination of what each of those are is usefule:

SOME SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES:  

Candidate Images:

We don't have to spend a lot of time talking about how important image is to a candidate. We've discussed that many times in class already.  The authors have an excellent chapter on the issue.  

 

What are candidate images?  There are several approaches:

Other academics have categorized four ideal types of candidates for voters:

How do you develop an image?

Mike McClister (D: Johnson, Carter and others) "Image is truth with its best foot foward."

Cognition: 

These are the facts we learn about candidates which help us figure out who they are.  It doesn't matter whether the information is accurate.  If we learn it, and apply it, it will impact our image of the candidate.

Evaluation: 

Does the vote like/dislike or find the candidate's position similar or dissimilar to the voters own ideas.

Behavior:

The idea is to get the person to vote -- to care enough about the candidate to DO something about that.  That something could be to volunteer, work in the campaign, talk to friends, etc. 

 

Obviously image affects the outcomes of campaigns.   People have a hard time voting for people they dislike.  In Alabama, a lot of people agreed with many of Fob James' positions, but they disliked him, his image and the way that image affected the image of Alabama.   

Think about the images of some recent candidates:

 

What types of images to voters remember more?

(negative ones)

How do campaigns affect image?

 

* I will not hold you responsible for remembering which consultants developed which strategy. That information is there for informational purposes only.

Resources:

 

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

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