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Parties and Elections > Week 20 > Flashcards

Week 20 Flashcards

Party Campaigning

1
Q

What is political party campaigning?

A
  • A planned set of actions that political parties undertake over an extended period of time to convey a message to voters with a goal of winning elections
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2
Q

Which people are considered voters in political party campaigning?

A
  • Your supporters
  • People who will never vote for you
  • Undecided voters
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3
Q

What are the qualities of campaigning in the UK?

A
  • Leader focused
  • Valence emphasis
  • Rise of political marketing and professionalisation
  • Vital importance of TV and digital media
  • Revival of (centralised) local campaigns
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4
Q

What does valence mean in political campaigning in the UK mean?

A

How competent political parties are perceived at achieving what they want

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5
Q

What does professionalisation mean in political campaigning?

A

Getting professionals or experts to run your campaign

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6
Q

What are the different time periods in UK political campaigning?

A
  • Pre-modern
  • Modern
  • Post-modern
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7
Q

What are the distinctions between the different time periods of political campaigning?

A
  • Alignment and pre-TV
  • Weak alignment and mass-TV
  • Dealignment and fragmented, digital media
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8
Q

Pre-modern time period, context of alignment and pre-TV

  • Parties:
  • Planned:
  • Messages:
  • Voters:
  • Actions (level/focus):
    Time:
A
  • Parties: local parties
  • Planned: loose, decentralised
  • Messages: “propaganda”, fixed voter/policy
  • Voters: core voters
  • Actions (level/focus): local - mobilisation, reliant on activists
    Time: short - weeks before election
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9
Q

Modern time period, context of weak alignment and mass TV

  • Parties:
  • Planned:
  • Messages:
  • Voters:
  • Actions (level/focus):
    Time:
A
  • Parties: headquarters
  • Planned: tight, centrally organised
  • Messages: “sales”, persuade uncommitted voters
  • Voters: swing voters
  • Actions (level/focus): national campaigns - better policy, campaign professionals
    Time: long (year before election)
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10
Q

What does “sales” messaging mean in political campaigning?

A

Marketing political parties as a product

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11
Q

Post-modern time period, context of dealignment and fragmented digital media

  • Parties:
  • Planned:
  • Messages:
  • Voters:
  • Actions (level/focus):
    Time:
A
  • Parties: campaign professionals
  • Planned: tight, centrally organised
  • Messages: “marketing”, targeted malleable policy
  • Voters: swing voters
  • Actions (level/focus): multilevel (local and national) - policy image, candidate (product), campaign professionals
    Time: permanent (lasts for years, not weeks)
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12
Q

What is malleable policy?

A

Focus on more palatable and less controversial ideas such as valence issues

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13
Q

Political marketing
- Consumers:
- Product:
- Tools:

A
  • Consumers: voters
  • Product: policies, candidates and leaders, image
  • Tools: polling, focus groups, news management, etc.
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14
Q

Why is political marketing similar to product marketing today?

A
  • Attempt to create long-term brand
  • Associate parties/leaders with images that endure
  • Valuable short-cut for poorly informed voters - valence attributes, slogans and logos
  • Political marketing is important in media-dominated era with a dealigned electorate
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15
Q

Do political marketers ever consider party ideology and history when making adverts?

A
  • Political marketing is more important than ideology
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16
Q

What do marketing professionals consider when marketing policies?

A
  • Eye-catching policies, e.g., tax cuts. tough on crime and migration
17
Q

What do marketing professionals consider when marketing candidates and leaders?

A
  • Political: moderate or extreme? Strong or weak?
  • Personal: age, class, (lack of) hair, accent, wit
  • What leaders are like vs what they do
  • Permanent campaigning: things politicians have done years ago may still effect the outcome of an election in week-long campaign
18
Q

What do marketing professionals consider when marketing image?

A
  • Extreme or moderate
  • United vs divided
  • Represents all or only some groups
  • Caring or uncaring
19
Q

How do political marketers use news events as a tool?

A
  • Give media outlets incentives to report on parties
  • Managing short term daily news will develop long term images
  • This filters through to voters
20
Q

What are some examples of tactics marketers use for news events?

A
  • Interviews and briefings (on or off record)
  • Policy announcements
  • Manifesto launches
  • Press conferences
  • News releases
  • Speeches
21
Q

Why do parties use spin doctors and news management?

A
  • Parties are under constant media scrutiny
  • They need media specialists to fight damaging media stories and promote helpful stories
    –> they can influence the reporting of stories
22
Q

Who do spin doctors tend to be?

A

Often ex-journalists

23
Q

When did the use of spin doctors rise?

A

Under New Labour

24
Q

What are the benefits of using party leaders TV debates as a tool?

A
  • Good for small parties - increase publicity
  • Voters can see leaders directly responding/challenging
  • Can boost the credibility of strong performers
  • Can accentuate focus on leaders
  • Can detract attention from the rest of the election campaign
25
Q

When was the first UK televised leader debates?

A

2010

26
Q

How is polling and focus groups a useful tool for political marketing?

A

Get information to adjust product along with voters’ expressed preferences

27
Q

What is conventional opinion polling (qualitative)?

A
  • Large sample of voters (e.g., 500 - 1000 respondents)
  • Closed questions (survey)
  • Questions about party image strengths, weaknesses, popular policies etc.
28
Q

What are the benefits of conventional opinion polling (qualitative) in political marketing?

A
  • Precise answers
  • Big sample size
  • Easy to process data
29
Q

What are the negatives of using conventional opinion polling in political marketing?

A
  • Costs a lot of money and time
  • Unable to give nuanced answers that might be helpful
  • Cannot ask follow-up questions
30
Q

What is a focus group?

A
  • Small sample pf voters (e.g., 10-20)
  • Tests depth/ intensity
  • Open questions, discussion
31
Q

What are the benefits of focus groups in political marketing?

A
  • Cheaper and takes less time than conventional opinion polling
  • More nuanced answers
  • Can ask follow-up questions
32
Q

What are the negatives of focus groups in political marketing?

A
  • Small sample size
  • Confirmation bias
  • People may lie about their beliefs due to peer pressure
33
Q

What are the opportunities that parties/politicians have when using the internet and social media for political campaigning?

A
  • Direct communication with local parties, members and voters
  • Can circumvent mainstream media
  • Can target appeals to certain groups
34
Q

What are the possible limits that parties have when using the internet and social media for political campaigning?

A
  • How wide of a reach does the internet/social media really have?
  • Marketing to your followers who probably already support you
  • Hard to maintain unity within the party
35
Q

What are the risks that parties have when using the internet and social media for political campaigning?

A
  • Fake news
  • Information bubbles
  • Echo chambers
36
Q

Why do parties have a new interest in local campaigns?

A

Could be helpful in selected marginal seats

37
Q

What are the advantages of local campaigns?

A
  • Face to face contact
  • Concentrate resources (funds, activists)
  • Two way interaction with voters
  • What exactly are the advantages of this?
38
Q

What are the disadvantages of local campaigns?

A
  • Time-consuming
  • Each activists only reaches a few voters
  • Challenged by declining memberships, esp in some countries
39
Q

How is the style of local campaigns changing?

A

More centrally coordinated

  • National coordination, professionalisation
  • Targeting key seats - money and activists
  • Telephone banks - calling voters
  • Appeals to targeted groups

Parties and Elections (11 decks)

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