Persuasive Communications, Campaigning and Public Opinion - Report Example

PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATIONS, CAMPAIGNING AND PUBLIC OPINION Persuasive communications, campaigning and public opinion Democracy prevails when citizens of a country can exercise their individual rights and freedoms. Among the many freedoms and rights entrenched in the constitution, freedom of expression is a fundamental right. This right seeks to ensure that citizens are audible on the pertinent issues affecting their day to day lives. Public opinion is the collection of attitudes and beliefs of individuals in society. It is an extraordinarily complex aggregate of opinions of diverse people and therefore, sums up their views and beliefs (Windahl, Signitzer & Olson 2009). Over time, every including public opinion has dramatically revolutionized. This tabulation of public opinions began in ancient Greece as the election represented the principal component of democracy. Persuasive communication seeks to influence the beliefs, behaviors, intentions, attitudes and motivations of citizens. Persuasive communication aims at transforming an individual or group’s attitudes, beliefs, or behavior towards a certain event, object or idea. Persuasive communication uses feelings, information reasoning or a combination of the three elements (Jowett & O’Donnell 2012). This communication is more often than not used to articulate point for personal gain such as an electioneering campaign. On the hand, the campaign is a broad discipline that dominates the political divide. It is worth noting that a political campaign is in essence an organized effort seeking to influence the decision making capabilities of a county’s subjects. Political campaigns have had a tremendous impact on the realization of democracy the world over. In the current high profile government, candidates attempt to capture their subjects in aggressive campaigns selling ideas and policies to improve decision making. However, campaigning just like the persuasive communication has no restriction to serve the political arena. Although campaigns dominate the political divide, there are numerous ways in which citizens can utilize the campaign platform. For instance, workers through their trade union campaign for better pay and conducive work environments. These campaigns ideally seek to change the attitude of decision makers through an interactive process. Through campaign platforms, the public opinion comes to light, and the decision makers have the ability to create an informative choice. It is evident that all the three elements; campaigns, persuasive communication and public opinion revolve around persuasion. Persuasion commonly known as human communication implies conveying information intended to change or influence others. There are certain requirements for the one conveying the message for the recipient to consider the message as persuasive. First and foremost, persuasion involves a defined objective and the mere intent to achieve the target. It is obvious that communication is the tool used to achieve the defied target. Finally, the decision maker or recipient has to have free will. This implies persuasion is effective when the decision maker is not under duress or undue influence. Many scholars have come aboard seeking to indulge in the topic of persuasion thus leaving behind a number of theories. The theories share a common element concerned with a shift in the recipient’s attitude (Perloff 2010). Attitude refers to the response of an individual either in an unfavorable or favorable disposition towards a thing. People have an inclination towards an array of things for instance; place, events, products, peoples ideas and even policies. It is also noteworthy that attitudes e not inherent in the human beings. This implies that human beings understood the perceived evaluations opposed to having them at the time of birth. Persuasion seeks to address attitudes since attitudes influence the behavior and actions of an individual. The four well known, and articulate theories brought forth in the world of academia include social judgment theory, narrative paradigm, elaboration likelihood model, and cognitive dissonance. These theories revolve around an array of issues from trying to foster a positive attitude in a potential client to convincing a client that the presumed sales person is honest. The intention of this discussion is to reveal and delineate various aspects of persuasive communication and campaigning and their impact on public opinion. Obesity is an endemic disorder among children. Various research initiatives agree that obesity is on the rise among children. Obesity is a health risk in itself and links to an array of diseases. For instance, the obese people are likely to have heart complications, cancer and at times diabetes. This is because; obesity implies excess fat content in one’s body. The research conducted also depicts that there is a higher percentage of obese children living in the urban areas. Given the lack of space in the urban centers, children living in these conditions are likely to be obese. Also, the food content in the urban areas has a higher fat content opposed to the food in the rural setting. These facts coupled with lack of institutional awareness among children are becoming an alerting trend. Obesity does not only interfere with the lives and health of the affected child but also destabilizes the whole family. Obesity, therefore, adds health expenses to both the family members as well as the government (Thaler & Sunstein 2008). In 2005, the Government introduced a program called the National Child Measurement Program to address the rampant obesity issue. This program has a number of key issues, which include; relaying information regarding prevalent obesity rates between 4- 5 and 10 – 11 year old children in England. In addition, this program aims at educating parents and helping them understand the children’s health status. This implies that this program seeks to illuminate parents about the dangers exposed to the children due to certain lifestyles. This aims at encouraging behavioral change among the parents. In modern democracies, public information relayed through campaigns or other models attempt to change the behaviors of the decision makers. Public relations practitioners assert that public opinion more often than not facilitate behavior change. Public opinion permeates through persuasion modes adopted by partisan groups. Various theories argue that public opinion can genuinely change the behaviors of decision makers (Thaler & Sunstein 2008). The question at hand revolves around the public opinion created through knowledge relayed by the National Child Measurement Program. Information put forth in the public domain in one way or another affect the decision making antics of the recipients. One of the theories of persuasion is a social judgment (Simons & Jones 2011). Through this theory, scholars opine that, knowing a person’s attitude tremendously helps the persuasion effort. It proceeds to explain that people in society make decisions basing on their anchors. Each and every person has an anchor or stance with regard to a message. On the other hand, social judgment theory clearly asserts that attitudes can be classified into three categories. The first category is the latitude of acceptance and this comprise of the ideas that the recipient finds acceptable. There is also the latitude of rejection which comprises all the ideologies that the recipients opine as unacceptable. Finally, there are the latitudes of non commitment, which the recipient cannot accept or reject. For the persuasive message to take effect, it is noteworthy that the National Child Measurement Program considers this theory. A person’s ability to change behavior with regards to information relayed depends on an individual position on the topic. The first step according to the social judgment theory is to determine the attitude of the recipient. This implies that by the National Child Measurement Program relaying statistics in the public domain immediately sparks a reaction in the recipient. For some, these figures or statics result in a feeling of indignation with regard to the prevalent health issue. For others, the figures might result to irritation merely because the issue at hand relates to weight gain. This example perfectly explains the social judgment theory. It is also notable that an individual’s ego has a significant effect on public opinion. This implies, in the instance that a person has a high ego with regard to a topic; any information relayed through public opinion will hold an intense position. For instance, a person who highly regards matters relating to health will more often than not indicate interest to the obesity issue. This is because; the issue revolves around a topic that has personal significance to the individual hence it is a central issue (Rice & Atkin 2012). An ego involved individual is a partisan to the public opinion. This is a clear match to logic that if an individual supports health issues, any public opinion will sway the behavior of the individual. The social judgment theory has two effects that can result because of the message passed to a recipient. The recipient can either have an assimilation effect or a contrast effect. Contrast effect arises when the message is closer to the person’s anchor. This implies that the message will fall within the individual’s latitude of acceptance and hence the subconscious will reduce the difference between public and opinion. On the other hand, contrast effect implies that the message perceived as further away from the anchors of an individual. This effect amount to the latitudes of rejection as the receiver will subconsciously exaggerate the difference between the message and personal opinion. In totality, the theorem of social judgment opines that the public practitioners need to consider the pre existing anchors or attitudes that the recipient may hold before crafting a message. It is beneficial to note that the National Child Measurement Program needs to identify the recipient’s latitudes of acceptance, and this is one of the key challenges. This challenge emanates from the fact that, if the National Child Measurement Program relays a message contrary to the anchors and attitudes of the recipient, the information will fall under the latitudes of rejection. On the other hand, in the instance that the National Child Measurement Program relays a message that is in line with the recipient’s latitude of acceptance, the message will reinforce the recipient’s beliefs and anchors. It is inherent that the public practitioners need to evaluate the pre existing beliefs and attitudes before crafting a message to stimulate public opinion. At times, it might be difficult to identify the attitudes and beliefs of an individual. However, according to the social judgment theorem, it is vital to determine the beliefs and attitudes pre existing in a recipient before coming up with a message to garner public opinion (Cialdini 2009). Rhetoric is an art of discourse that aims to improve the public practitioners attempt to persuade the recipient. Given the cultural diversities in the modern day and age, rhetoric displays a central and formative role in the western tradition (Leith 2011). According to ancient scholars, rhetoric is a faculty that entails observing the best available means of persuasion. In addition, rhetoric has five canons, which public practitioners need to inculcate in the speech. They include; memory, delivery, style, arrangement, and invention. Grammar, logic and rhetoric, are the perceived ancient arts of discourse. The debate emanating from rhetoric among scholars relates to the scope of rhetoric since the Yesteryears. This is because; some scholars in ancient Greece opined that, rhetoric encompasses realms in the political discourse. On the other hand, the modern scholars are confident that rhetoric encompasses every aspect of culture and its perceived diversity. This implies that rhetoric is a human communication aid that entails purposeful and strategic dissemination of information. This implies that people studying the rhetoric discourse over the past decade indicate that rhetoric has a larger subject domain than speeches alone. For instance, through rhetoric, conflict resolution is possible through identification of the shared characteristics in symbols. There is also a broader domain allied to rhetoric commonly known as constitutive logic. Social construction enhances this theorem of constitutive logic by opining that culture reconstitutes through language. This in itself broadens the scope allied to rhetoric to surpass the political persuasion to a range of immense topics. Over the years, it is evident that rhetoric has revolutionized. This is because; the doctrine is no longer restricted to the political persuasion but is open to the modern cultural diversity. The public practitioners need to embrace the rhetoric as it has an enormous impact while relaying information. Considering it is an ancient tool of relaying information, the National Child Measurement Program should purpose utilize it. In addition, rhetoric encompasses cultural diversity hence better placed to address the issue of the National Child Measurement Program seeking public opinion (Thaler & Sunstein 2008). It is worth noting that the state also has an opinion. According to some scholars, the state’s opinion is more influential than the public opinion. This is because; state opinion confines itself to the doctrines of authority and the well being of society. This implies that state opinion aims at restoring sanctity to an array of issues. The issues revolve around political alignments to other culturally diverse topics. On the contrary, public opinion addresses all issues that can be arraigned in public domains. The intent of public opinions is to create awareness as well as sway the behavior of individuals to a perceived form (Waymer, Toth & Heath 2009). The National Child Measurement Program seeks to ensure that parents are aware of the pertaining health issue of obesity. By airing the statistical figures, the National Child Measurement Program will create a public opinion. The intention of this opinion is to enhance tendencies among the public that seek to reduce obesity. In addition, according to the cognitive dissonance theory, public practitioners need to provide concrete information to persuade other people’s mindset. This implies that the best way to get a parent to take caution is to issue concrete information. The public health campaigns should contain figures and detailed statistic as people are more likely to sway through figures than a blanket of information. Availing the information relating to mortality rates, health associated problems and the social stigma emanating from obesity is more likely to change the parent’s attitudes. It is apparent that if the attitude of the parent changes, the parent will change their behavior (Stiff & Mongeau 2003). However, according to the theory of public dissonance, it warrants the question, why are parent’s still negligent yet detailed information is in the public domain? Each and every has schemata. This is the cognitive structure in human beings that enhances the organization of newly disseminated information. This implies that for new information to be beneficial and create the desired public opinion, it is necessary to find the schemata that link the new information to previous experiences (Sheldrake 2011). In the instance that the new information contravenes to the previous beliefs and experience, this will amount to dissonance. This discomfort is an essential tool for the public practitioners. This is because; according to human norms, individual will seek all possible avenues to avert the dissonance. This will result to the individuals behaving in conformity to the new information. The underlying principle is that individuals despise being unnerved hence they will actively change the situation seeking to restore the initial balance between thought and actions. There are a number of relationships existing between beliefs and behaviors. They include; irrelevance, consonance and dissonance. Irrelevance implies that beliefs and behaviors have no relation. On the other hand, consonance arises when new information achieves congruence with the existing beliefs. Finally, dissonance arises when there is a conflict between existing information and any new piece of information. For the health campaign against obesity to be effective, the public practitioners need to create dissonance. It is, however, notable that dissonance is not equal (Ries & Trout 2001). The challenge emanating from this theorem is the fact that public practitioners cannot comprehensively measure the magnitude of dissonance. To avert this challenge, scholars assert that three variables measure the magnitude of dissonance. They include; perceived importance, dissonance ratio and rationalizing. The public practitioners spearheading the health campaigns need to be aware of the selective exposure. Selective exposure is the act of individuals to avoid any piece of information that contravenes to previously held beliefs. On the other hand, there is selective attention, which is the belief that people will seek information that reaffirms to the previously held beliefs. There also exists selective interpretation, which explains that individuals have a tendency to decipher any ambiguous information so as it conforms to the preexisting beliefs. There is also the aspect of selective restraint where individuals despise any information contravening previously held beliefs. For the public practitioners to be effective, it is valuable considered the above sentiments. Public health campaigns seek to enlighten the mindset individuals in society by changing their behaviors (Moloney 2006). Conclusion It is apparent that there are various aspects allied to persuasive communication and campaigning. This communication has an evident impact on changing or modifying the behaviors of individuals in society. The intent of the availing information in the public domain is to enhance the recipient’s ability to make a conclusive decision. Persuasion antics have been in use since time immemorial for instance in ancient Greece. Persuasive communication is paramount in an array of fields in the modern world. For instance, the political campaigns substantially rely on it to sway the mentality of the subjects. On the other hand, corporation all over the world utilizes persuasive communication to lure clients seeking to increase sales (Schiffman, Kanuk & Hansen 2008). In addition, scholars have come with theories articulating the best form of persuasive communication. These theories seek to reinforce the public opinions held by individuals in society. Obesity is a health issue in the public domain. Obesity is not only a condition, but it is life threatening to young children in the modern society. There are staggering facts in the custody of the medical fraternity relating to obesity, its prevalence and its threats as well as consequences. Once this facts are in the public domain, individuals react in different forms and ways. The theories seek to articulate the different expected forms of reaction and how the public practitioners can make the best out of what they have. There is also an aspect of state opinion. The state as a government has an opinion which seeks to guide the citizens towards a desired perspective. It is essential for the public practitioners to utilize the theories at their disposal in conjunction with the rhetoric dissonance to ensure behavior change. 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