American Political Communications - Essay Example

Political communication: Today, voters no longer make decisions based only on personal opinion but view most issues through the eyes and ears of the media. Most options arise from interpretation of the symbols obtained from mass media. Political advertising is a prominent media for reaching voters. Political advertisements aim at increasing issue knowledge, influencing perceptions of the candidate’s character, altering attitudes and affecting candidate preference. In most political advertisements, politicians essentially promote themselves, their thoughts, beliefs, values, image and political propaganda. These advertisements can have a rather persuasive influence on voters. Political ads can convey both positive and negative feelings. The ads that intend to leave a positive impression about the candidate emphasize accomplishments and their good qualities. Other ads incorporate disturbing statistical evidence, visuals or sounds to leave a negative effect about he opponent. Negative ads mainly incite the fear among people about what could happen if that candidate were to win. The advertisement that has been analyzed in this paper “disarray” (September 2009) is a negative political advertisement which intends to affect the minds of people regarding Barack Obama’s health plan. It may be categorized as a negative ad since it intends to leave the impression that the democratic government might not be able to handle the issue and has been issued by the national republican senatorial committee. The effect that an advertisement can leave on people is largely manipulated by production elements such as camera shots, framing, lighting, sound and effects, narration, slogan, security, comparison, persuasive techniques and emotional appeal. Other elements that also contribute to the overall effect are connotative image, gesture, posture and syntax. All of these factors are an important part of political advertising as each of it can have a considerable effect on its target audience. In this advertisements a range of techniques have been used to leave a negative effect such as the statistical details presented, the camera shots, framing, music and narration. In this advertisement, the camera shots do not focus any strong positive feeling expressed by any person or event. In contrast, it contains a shot of a group of Americans protesting against the health plan which induces a negative feeling as the target audience usually relate to the public shown in tapes. There are no shots in this ad showing the American flag which usually gives the audience a sense of oneness, leaving a positive effect. The video does not have any positive comments regarding the health plan which means that both sides of an argument are never featured in the same ad. There are several shots in this advertisement showing various political leaders making comments regarding the health plan which aims at statistically proving the lack of support regarding the same. It includes shots where politicians are asked questions to which they cannot but give a straight answer regarding the issue. This advertisement has been well designed in regard of the camera shots, giving importance to not include shots in which people show happiness or any other positive emotion. Framing is the positioning of objects and people to achieve certain effects. For instance, a candidate may be framed from a low angle to make them seem important. In this ad, framing has been given much thought to and the videos have been angled in order to give more importance to the text. In many advertisements the text is usually more disturbing than the video itself since text can be directly directed against the opponent while most video clippings cannot be just as convincing. The speed at which the framing shifts also has a great impact on the overall effect of the advertisement. For example, a video showing people gathered under a flag slowly fades out to show another scene where the candidate addresses them, which is the kind of framing that can have positive effects. However in this ad, the frames shift rapidly, showing one shot after another with text content that slowly wash out the calm of a viewer, leaving a sense of anxiety in them. Lighting plays an important role in the making of advertisements. Images shown in a bright background tend to have a soothing effect while images framed in a dark background or black and white can make the opponent seem threatening or unpleasant, which can disturb the minds of the viewers. This advertisement has for its background, the neon green signals on an ECG screen which naturally does not have any sort of positive effect, since the idea of being under medical monitoring is in itself a negative feeling. This aspect of the advertisement has contributed greatly to the effect that the advertisement has on its viewers. There is a very small part played by emotional appeal in his advertisement, which is accomplished by a clip showing a group of Americans protesting against the health plan with the wordings “ The American people rejected them “. Another important part of any political advertisement is how persuasive it can be. Since this advertisement provides statistical detail stating that not many politicians are in favor of the program and the percentage of people that are in favor of the democrats, which is a negative element, the ad is rather persuasive. Most viewers of this advertisement would be convinced that the health plan is probably going to be a failure. Sound effects are an integral part of advertising and sound effects employed in political commercials can even create a mood. For instance, a repeated pounding sound can be disturbing and may be featured in a negative advertisement. Many video clips can either leave a negative effect or a positive one just by manipulating the sound effects included. In this particular advertisement, the sound effect of an ECG monitor has been incorporated. The music intends to give importance to the problems faced by democrats in the issue of the health insurance plans which intern is in support of the republicans. The main idea is to show that democrats are now in a rather troubled position with respect to the health plan. Language used in advertisements usually has a strong influence. “one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end .” – George Orwell, “Politics and English Language,” (mtholyoke.edu/) Slogans are memorable phrases used in political campaigns or in a series of political ads. Viewers associate the particular slogan to the political party. However in this advertisement there has been no use of slogans since it is entirely a negative political advertisement. Many advertisements follow the repetitive pattern while some others follow persuasive techniques. The use of strong and persuasive wordings is seen in this advertisement, which hints at the fact that the democrats may not be an able government. The words that are highlighted are negative words. For example, in the wordings ‘’ The American people rejected them ‘’, the words ‘’ rejected them ‘’ have been highlighted. Similarly, in the text ‘’ They’re now in total disarray’’ the word ‘’disarray’’ has been highlighted. It is seen that the syntax of words used in political ads can achieve different purposes when used in different ways. The syntax used in this advertisement is in the tone of the narrator as well as the speaker. It may be noted that the narrator is usually a male in most political advertisements including this one. In most negative political advertisements, security is widely used to change how people perceive things. Security is one of the most common persuasive techniques used in advertising. The ad creates fear in the minds of its viewers by telling them that their jobs, families or lives will be in jeopardy if they support the particular cause or candidate. This has been used in this ad to imply the inefficiency of a democratic government. This is also known as connotative imagery, where a comparison has been made subtly just by coining their opponent as inefficient and not directly showing clips in comparison. The political advertisement which has been analyzed has included a wide number of advertising techniques and might be rather successful in creating the effect that was intended. The target audience would at least experience a minimal change in their attitude toward the plan on repeatedly being told otherwise. More than 40% of political ads are negative political ads and are very common now. Political communication has now become a very important part of politics as it reaches an audience that might not be well informed on political issues. Many political advertisements target a not so well informed group and hence make the ad simple, without including political terms which might not be familiar to the audience. In political advertisements from an earlier time favored long and complex sentences which required more thought and attention from the viewers. In the present day political advertisements, shorter sentences are used, in many cases even phrases or fragments which would maintain the interest of the viewer. The use of negative words are more than just an attack technique, it is an important strategy used to sway voters opinion. The advertisement under discussion incorporates many of these strategies to achieve the desired effect among its audience. Reference: www.youtube. ‘’Disarray’’ September 2009. Retrieved on February 24, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s19CQzw6Hl0 mtholyoke.edu. George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946. Retrieved on February 24, 2010 from http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm Read More