System of India Election Campaign - Term Paper Example

Campaign Posters and India Elections In India, election campaign posters are widely used despite the rapid modernization of the country and the emergence of alternative media. Such posters mostly feature the candidates participating in elections. However, there has been a change of focus towards the inclusion of other political-related features that might influence the electorate. For instance, in 2004, the BJP published posters featuring train terror attacks that claimed 59 lives. Politicians primarily use such posters to spread propaganda that potentially influences the opinions of voters. They also use them to promote themselves and their ideologies. However, in some cases, the uses of certain content in posters sometimes backfire. For example, in 2007, INC party published a photo depicting Sonia Gandhi as a goddess. INC was widely criticized because people interpreted the photo as an insult to Hinduism (Seidman). Political campaign posters Political campaign posters are usually designed in different sizes and shapes. They are intentionally created beautiful to attract the attention of potential voters and passers-by. Politicians always choose very attractive colors for the photographs that appear on the posters. In addition to photos, politicians inscribe campaign slogans on their posters. The names of the candidates and their slogans and other symbols are printed in large font capable of attracting the attention of the electorate. Functionally, political campaign posters are meant to familiarize candidates to voters and also convey the political mission of the candidates (Sharndama & Mohammed 65). From an artistic point of view, political campaign posters are important tools that convey the images of politicians to the electorate. Thus, politicians tend to make them as attractive as possible so that they can promote positive images of themselves among potential voters. Such campaign posters together with accompanying slogans enable the voters to retain the name and campaign platforms for particular candidates in elections (Sharndama & Mohammed 65). For instance, in India, they are placed in easy-to-access public places such as streets, public toilets, walls, street signs, public service vehicles, or even electricity poles. Posters are also distributed as leaflets and handbills to potential voters (Seidman). Political campaign slogans inscribed in posters are essentially concise statements that summarize the ideology or philosophies of respective politicians. The politicians usually make such slogans short, concise and precise so that the voters find them easy to memorize. Candidates usually make attempts to ensure that their campaign slogans accommodate their campaign missions. In most cases, they use colorful designs that motivate the voters (Sharndama & Mohammed 66). In the case of countries where a significant portion of voters is illiterate, politicians promote their symbols in posters to help the uneducated voters in identifying them during voting. For instance, in India, popular parties such as INC, BJP, NCP, or even BSP usually place their symbols alongside their candidates’ photos in their posters. INC, BJP, NCP and BSP use the hand, lotus, clock and elephant respectively as their party symbols (Electoral Commission of India). Political propaganda Propaganda is described as black, white or grey in relation to its source and accuracy of the information. Although it takes many forms, propaganda is almost always in the form of activated ideology. Black propaganda is when the source is attributed or credited to an unreliable source and spreads distortions, deceptions and fabrications. Its success or failure in politics depends on the electorate’s willingness to accept the content of the information and the reliability of the source. Politicians usually take great care when placing the message and source within social and political frameworks of the electorate. If a politician misunderstands and goes ahead to design a message that does not fit the electorate, the propaganda may appear suspicious and tends to fail. White propaganda originates from sources that are classified correctly, and the facts in the message appear to be true. It attempts to build credibility with the audience due to anticipated usefulness in the future (Jowett & O’Donnell 17-18). The primary goal of political propaganda is mass persuasion. It is aimed at convincing large number of people that there is only a single valid viewpoint, and they should eliminate all other options (Cull, Culbert & Welch 318-19). It plays an outstanding role in shaping public opinion and political outcomes (Welch 5). Political propaganda is mostly propagated through posters. Such posters and other elements of propaganda campaigns attempt to influence the public’s opinion about certain candidates and causes. They also affect subsequent behavior such as voting and contribution of money to finance campaigns. The intention of using campaign posters is clearly not to inform fully or educate the population, but to spread misleading information. In some cases, propaganda strategies may involve accurate information aimed at increasing their credibility (Seidman 7). In India, posters and billboards continue to be the mainstay of political campaigning because of illiteracy persistence. It is widely used in rural areas of the country where majority of the adult population is illiterate (Seidman 13). Legislation has also affected the use of posters in elections. In the country, television time is limited, but there are no legal limitations on expenditure on posters and billboards (Seidman 14). In India, politicians design political propaganda to elicit emotional reactions. One approach of achieving this is by carrying out negative advertisements. Scare tactics are occasionally used with the primary aim of increasing fear and prejudice in the electorate via the poster medium (Seidman 23). The information communicated by politicians may appear to be factual and totally undisputable. However, the politicians are aware that the point is not to encourage mutual understanding but rather personal objectives. Therefore, the politicians will attempt to control information flow and manage certain public’s opinion about shaping perceptions through strategies of informative communication. Propaganda could be an informative communication when politicians share ideas with the electorate, explain some things, or instruct people on what they should do. Indian politicians are specialized in sharing ideas, explaining, or even instructing with the intent of shaping people’s responses. In some cases, politicians use evidence but it may not persuade voters. Instead, evidence enhances a politician’s credibility. In politics, effective persuaders make their purposes as clear as possible to bring about attitude or behavior change. Politicians may appear to have clear objectives and explicitly stated conclusions, but their true objectives are likely to be concealed. In politics, propagandists are likely to appear as persuaders with stated purposes that seem to satisfy mutual needs. However, in reality, the political propagandists are interested in promoting their own interests or those of political parties at the expense of the people. The idea is that the politicians do not regard the well-being of the people as a primary concern. Politicians themselves do not care about the people. They do not also believe in the messages they communicate. Party slogans In India, political parties win elections because of the success of their slogans while others lose because their catchphrases fail to amaze the voters. Slogans are frequently a test of any political party’s capacity to determine the country’s mood. A good slogan brings together different groups usually separated by region, religion, language and caste, but a bad slogan crushes political ambitions. The opposition, BJP, won the 2014 elections because their slogan impressed the voters. Their slogan was “this time, it is Modi’s government,” which became popular with the admirers and opponents of BJP (Pandey). The Congress Party lost the elections because their slogan did not impress the electorate. Popular slogans “Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai” was used by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s former PM, in the 1950s campaigns. The slogan backfired because of wrong timing. At the time, India and China had border disputes that damaged relations. The disputes eventually led to a full-scale war in 1962. Jawaharlal Nehru’s slogan failed because it meant Indians and Chinese were brothers (Pandey). “Eradicate poverty” (Garabi Hatao) was used by Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister, in the 1971 election campaign. The slogan worked in her favor because the country was enduring an economic crisis, and the ‘eradicate poverty’ slogan brought hope to the poor (Pandey). “Remove Indira, Save the Nation” was used by Janata Morcha (Peoples Front), the opposition coalition that defeated Indira Gandhi in the 1977 elections. The slogan was successful because India’s government had jailed opposition groups and imposed restrictions on the media. Thus, the electorate found new hopes of improved governance in the People’s Front (Pandey). “Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer” was coined by Lal Bahadur Shastri following the 1965 war with Pakistan, which was accompanied by severe food shortage. The slogan succeeded because it boosted the people’s confidence during the crisis (Pandey). “India Shining” was BJP’s slogan, which brought the party to power. BJP used the slogan again in 2004 to seek re-election, but it failed. Although the economy was doing well, voters rejected BJP because not all Indians benefited from the economic boom (Pandey). “What did the common man get?” was coined by the Congress in 2004 to counter the BJP’s popular “India Shinning” slogan. The Congress won the elections because it was true that not all Indians benefited from the country’s economic growth. Indeed the country was far from “Shining.” Political marketing Politicians rely on basic marketing skills in designing posters, holding political rallies, giving speeches, and familiarizing voters with party and candidate names. All modern day Indian politicians have relied on marketing skills to communicate their message to the Indian people. In politics, the same principles that are used in the commercial marketplace are applicable in the political marketplace. In a competitive market, successful firms are market oriented and constantly engage in creating value for their customers. Marketers usually anticipate the needs of their customers, and then develop innovative products and services consistently to satisfy their customers. Politicians are similarly oriented; they create value for their people by upgrading the condition of life and generating the maximum benefit at the lowest cost (Newman). Politicians are like service providers who regard the voters as consumers in the political marketplace. They usually operate in a highly competitive market like other service providers. Thus, they must rely on similar approaches like other service providers offering unique service obligations in their respective marketplaces. However, there are certain situations that differentiate politicians from other service providers. First, politicians are faced by situations that are both controllable and uncontrollable. As opposed to other service providers, politicians must react constantly to forces within the environment that are difficult to control. For example, when campaigning for office, there could be events that the politicians did not anticipate. They include military invasions, deaths of other politicians, and accusations by rivals. Such events are beyond the control of politicians and can only be dealt with by having organizations that are sufficiently flexible to respond. However, politicians can control the course of events by establishing proactive rather than reactive policies (Newman). The second dimension that differentiates politicians from other service providers is the double roles played by politicians as both campaigners and policy-makers. As campaigners, politicians are in the business of trying to get sufficient votes to hold office. Politicians usually scrutinize their constituencies and competition carefully in order to identify the needs of voters and capture competitive niches in the marketplace. They often use volunteers to carry out grass root activities on a temporary basis. As policy-makers, politicians rely on permanent staffs that help them carryout their duties. The decisive point to be addressed here is that the scope of activities and resultant tactics depend on the roles that the politicians play (Newman). The third dimension that differentiates politicians from other service providers is the type and level of communication they use with their parties. Unlike other service providers, politicians can rarely meet in person with the electorate. Instead, they rely on public appearances, mass media communications, and direct mail procedures to establish contact with the electorate. In most cases, the political parties are responsible for making the contact. However, due to increased competition, politicians always have more face-to-face meetings compared with other service providers (Newman). Market segmentation and targeting are used in business to identify certain groups of customers that the marketers direct their products and promotional campaign. Segmentation is used by many firms that choose not to sell their products to all potential customers, but only to those who are likely to buy them (Newman). In politics, market segmentation has been used widely by many political parties to select the segments of voters they target with their campaigns. For example, Modi realized in the 2014 campaigns that the middle class, a very large voter segment, was ripe for targeting. The critical choice was communicating the right message to appeal to this voter segment. Because of the importance that economic issues play in Indian politics, Modi chose to use the promises of creating more jobs and providing better wages to appeal to the voter segment. Successful marketing in business is beyond the simple identification of consumer needs. It entails the ability to forecast the future nature of those needs. Thus, marketers should be able to identify and measure the needs of their customers. They should also have a vision that allows them to foresee the future of those needs. Therefore, marketing is a critical factor to understanding what consumers want and need. Customer needs could be driven by emotions and rationality. It often results in consumers desiring the same product for various reasons (Newman). In politics, marketing is a needs assessment strategy that relies on information from the voters to help guide policy formulation. It implies that the most successful policies are formulated around the findings from needs assessment surveys. Thus, successful politicians usually ensure that voters are concerned with certain issues before deciding to advocate them the same way smart marketers ensure that there is demand for their products before they distribute them (Devran). In business, marketing strategy is a plan of action that is used to implement a series of activities that will facilitate success in the market. It is specifically an integration of several strategies marketers rely on so that they can reinforce the positions they have created for their products. In politics, successful marketing strategy begins with the selection of acceptable candidates. When the acceptable candidate has been selected, the candidate’s political position is established through several channels. Similar to the approaches used in developing a marketing strategy for any product, candidates also have other approaches that help establish their marketing strategies. It should be noted that the products in politics are the image and policies of particular candidates. In order to succeed, candidates should market themselves and also market their campaign platforms. The campaign platform of any candidate evolves during the course of their political campaign. It is influenced by several factors such as the party, the people in their organization, the candidates themselves, and the voters (Newman). Once a candidate has established his platform, he can promote himself through two information channels. They are push and pull marketing. Push marketing is similar to the way in which any product is distributed from the manufacturer to the consumer through several intermediaries. In such a case, the candidate relies on the party mechanisms to pass information to the voter. Alternatively, the candidate can use pull marketing channel. Here, the candidate uses mass media to get to the voters. Pull marketing is the most important component in election campaigns (Newman). Preparation of posters and campaigns There are three main points that politicians take into consideration while preparing their political posters and advertisements. They are the campaign theme, message and strategies. The campaign theme includes the general topics of campaign messages. It gives answers to the questions about why political parties participate in elections or why candidates run for certain posts. Politicians plan thematic campaigns in order to let the voters know about the projects and plans that their parties develop for particular issues and to enable them to make decisions easily. Campaign teams usually conduct detailed polls before deciding on campaign themes in order to identify the problems their target voters face (Devran). There are three issues that politicians put into consideration when coining campaign messages. First, they ensure that the message encourages their supporters to vote during the elections. Second, they ensure that the message persuades undecided or independent voters. Third, they ensure that the message persuades those who are likely to vote for other parties to change their minds and support certain parties (Devran). During elections, political parties usually run positive campaign strategies to explain their own policies, projects, and ideology. They can also run negative strategies to attack the rival parties with the aim of weakening their influence. Political parties that carryout positive strategies do so to explain their own policies to the electorate without focusing on the issues of rival parties or responding to their criticism. The political parties using such strategies are the incumbent parties, have strong bases, and command respect from the electorate. The same political parties try to pass their messages in two ways. First, they explain their policies about specific issues that are important to the electorate. Second, they provide information about their candidates, something that contributes to creating good profiles of the candidates (Devran). Political parties or candidates carrying out negative campaigns do so by basing their strategies on the candidates, critiques of the past activities, and ideologies of rivals. They tend to capitalize on the weaknesses of their rivals and voter dissatisfaction. The political parties or candidates using such strategies do so in three different ways. First, they employ direct attacks whereby they criticize unfulfilled promises, past failures, inexperience, political blunders, candidate characteristics, and credibility of other candidates or parties. Second, they use comparative attacks by comparing their policies with those of rival parties so that the voters can make evaluations of the parties. Third, they use implied attacks by exaggerating their policies and explaining why they are unique. By doing so, such parties or candidates try to influence the voters to prefer their parties easily (Devran). The negative campaign strategy has the following positive results. First, negative political messages increase the interest of the voters in the elections. Second, voters tend to keep negative messages for relatively longer periods than the positive messages. Third, negative messages provide information about the plans of political parties. In addition, negative messages enable political discussions between political parties during elections. Lastly, negative political messages create negative profiles for the attacked leaders or their parties (Devran). The negative campaign strategy has the following negative results. First, there is a risk of a backlash effect whereby the party running the attack gets more damage than the targeted party. Second, it can create the syndrome of innocence if the voters disagree with the attackers and believe that their messages are wrong, unjust and inconsistent. Lastly, the negative messages may create a negative image for the attacking party (Devran). In the 2014 elections, the BJP used negative campaign strategy to attack the INC. The posters and print advertisement of BJP were successful in terms of covering the problems of target voters and explaining the new projects and using visual language. The BJP capitalized on the stalled economic growth, which used to be 8% but slowed down to less than 5% towards the general elections (Ndtv.com). The electorate also wanted change and upward mobility, which Modi’s campaign message covered. BJP and Modi’s negative campaign strategy did not backfire because the voters agreed with them and believed that their messages were right and consistent. Thus, the negative messages succeeded in creating negative profiles for other candidates, but failed to create a negative image for Modi. There are some elements that play significant roles in determining election campaign themes. They include the partisanship, political ideology, participating candidates, the campaign, problems and expectations of voters, and the election type. Political parties can base their campaign themes on partisanship if they have sufficient members with firm relations with their parties under all conditions. Political ideology plays a determining role if it is the only factor that voters base their decisions about political parties. The participating candidates determine campaign themes if the voters make decisions by focusing on individual characteristics such as experience, education, ideology, and career. If one of the candidates is better than others, such candidate can create a positive image, an added advantage in influencing the electorate. The campaign itself can influence the theme because elections are increasingly becoming more visual and turning into shows. Thus, political parties carry out campaign centered strategies. As a result, the campaigns themselves stimulate the voters to talk about themselves and shadow political ideologies, social problems, and candidates (Devran). The problems and expectations of the electorate can also influence campaign themes. Nowadays, the number of undecided voters is increasing because of the weakening relations between political parties and the electorate. Thus, political parties attempt to strengthen their relationships with their supporters and persuade the undecided voters by formulating themes that match with their present expectations. The party or candidate who influences majority of the undecided voters stands a better chance of winning the elections. In short, due to an increase in the number of undecided voters, political parties come up with new strategies that can influence the decisions of the undecided voters. The election type can also influence campaign themes. If an election is a general or a local one, it can dictate how political parties or candidates base their campaign issues (Devran). The campaign messages formulated by politicians have the following features. First, they directly address the people who are involved in the association profile of a particular political party. For example, if a political party aims at securing the support of certain groups of voters, then its campaign message satisfies their expectations. Second, they enable the targeted groups of voters to distinguish their party from other political parties. Third, the campaign message of a particular party reflects its policies, ideology, and theme, and can not be given by the other political parties. Fourth, they have sufficient and consistent content. In addition, in most cases, they are clear and understandable so that they can persuade the voters. Again, the visual and verbal codes and symbols always have sufficient capacity of creating comprehensive denotative and connotative meanings. Campaign messages also have the capacity to inculcate the target voters to dilute potential negative messages from rival political parties. Lastly, slogans inside texts have substantial power in terms of summarizing the overall campaign message (Devran). Contents of posters Politicians in India mostly design campaign posters according to direct message strategies. The SHIVSENA addressed various target voters including men or women, young or old with the following posters, even if they had supported the Congress or other parties in the past. They asked them to cast their votes for SHIVSENA in order to help them solve their problems easily. The claim raised in the posters was that the Congress government did not solve the problems facing the people, and the only solution was to support SHIVSENA. Thus, the campaign message persuaded those who could have voted for the other political parties to change their minds and supported SHIVSENA because of justifiable reasons and advantages. Figure 1: Campaign poster for the SHIVSENA party: Source – Mybigredbag.com The following poster was another campaign tool used by the BJP in the 2014 elections. It targeted the party loyalists, both the rich and the poor. Figure 2: Narendra Modi, the 2014 BJP candidate. Source – Financial Times The message communicated by the poster above targeted BJP loyalists just to ensure that they voted for the party. It was designed to give them renewed confidence that their candidate was unstoppable and could win the elections outright. Therefore, the campaign message directly addressed those who were involved in the coalition profile of the party. For instance, BJP was aiming at maintaining the support of loyal voters. Thus, its campaign message satisfied the expectations of the loyalists. Some parties choose strange names that can persuade the electorate to vote for them. In such situations where strange names are chosen, the voters identify themselves with the party. One notable example is the Indian Lovers Party, a party dedicated to fighting for the society’s approval of inter-caste relationships (Misra). Figure 3: Indian Lovers Party. Source - BBC Conclusion Despite the rapid modernization and emergence of alternative media, election campaign posters are still used widely in India. The posters are intentionally created beautiful to attract the attention of the electorate. Functionally, the posters are meant to familiarize candidates to the electorate and also to convey the political mission of the candidates. The posters also communicate the political campaign slogans, which essentially summarize the ideology or philosophies of politicians. In politics, the primary goal of propaganda is mass persuasion; it is aimed at convincing large number of people that there is only a single valid viewpoint. Political parties in India win or lose elections depending on the success of the propaganda in their slogans or catchphrases. Success in politics also depends on basic marketing skills. Thus, the modern day Indian politicians rely on marketing skills to communicate their message to the Indian people. When preparing campaign posters, Indian politicians take three points into consideration: the campaign theme, message and strategies. Works Cited Cull, Nicholas John, David Holbrook Culbert, and David Welch. Propaganda and mass persuasion: a historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Print. Devran, Yusuf. “A Theoretical Approach to Analysis of Political Posters and Print Ads.” Yeditepe University. ISIMD, 2004. Web. 28 July 2014. . Electoral Commission of India. “Political Parties and Election Symbols.” ECI. 2004. Web. 28 July 29, 2014. < http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/HANDBOOK% 20OF%20SYMBOLS.pdf> Misra, Tanvi. “Indian Political Parties with Strange Names.” BBC. N.p., 29 Mar. 2014. Web. 28 July 2014. . NDTV.com. “Election Results 2014: 5 Factors that Helped BJP and Narendra Modi Win the Election.” NDTV.com. N.p., 16 May 2014. Web. 29 July 2014. . Newman, Bruce L. “A Review in Political Marketing: Lessons from Recent Presidential Elections.” Ross School of Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2014. . Jowett, Garth, and Victoria ODonnell. Propaganda and persuasion. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 2012. Print. Pandey, Vikas. “Indias colourful election slogans.” BBC. N.p., 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 July 2014. . Seidman, Steven A.. “Posters in India.” Ithaca College. N.p., 11 Sept. 2008. Web. 28 July 2014. . Seidman, Steven A. Posters, propaganda, & persuasion in election campaigns around the world and through history. New York: P. Lang, 2008. Print. Sharndama, Emmanuel C., and Ibrahim Mohammed. “Stylistic Analysis of Selected Political Campaign Posters and Slogans in Yola Metropolis of Adamawa State of Nigeria.” Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1.3 (2013): 60-68. AJHSS. Web. 28 July 2014. < http://ajhss.org/pdfs/Vol1Issue3/Stylistic%20Analysis%20of%20selected....pdf>. Welch, David. The Third Reich: politics and propaganda. London: Routledge, 2008. Print. Read More