Campaign Methods

Campaign Methods

1. This essay will discuss different campaign methods such as grassroot, new tech, media and how they are interconnected.

2. Usually traditional grassroots campaign strategies are conducted through email, mail and phone calls . This is done to try and encourage individuals to turn out and vote in a general election by referendum.This is the longest outstanding method of campaigning however the use of grassroot strategies is in decline due to new upcoming technologies events are still put on to canvas for marginal seats. For example, the Conservative party won the 2017 General election with 45.4% of the votes, they lost 13 seats in parliament, however the Labour party gained those 13 seats. This shows that it can be argued that Labour’s efforts of targeted canvassing overall withheld a significant impact on their electoral performance and how they did in the election. This shows that grassroots as a method of campaigning is still relevant as it creates an opportunity for the party and its supporters to come together.

3. Print media doesn’t need to be neutral when it comes to covering politics so there is often a clear bias. Newspapers often come out and back a particular party in an election. For example the sun is the largest readership in the UK, it always supports the winning party; supports SNP in Scotland but Conservatives in England, both parties won massively in the 2019 election. Surveys after the 2015 Election show that voters were influenced by television. Of those voters who said TV was influential, 61% were swayed by live political debates, 38% by national news, but a mere 16% by party political broadcasts. This statement implies that newspapers can wield significant influence, especially when they back a particular party. The Sun's purported support for winning parties suggests that the newspaper may have a considerable impact on public opinion

4. The first leaders’ TV debates started in 2010 when David Cameron, Nick Clegg and then Prime Minister Gordon Brown debated the main issues of the time. The debates continued in the 2015 general election with the addition of another four main political parties. These debates attracted high viewing figures though the 2015 audience was smaller than in 2010. Across the three main channels 8.8 million people watched at least some of the debates. The main political parties received a chance to push their message to the electorate and several of the parties had success. A snap poll after the debate on ITV on 2 April 2015 showed Nicola Sturgeon in the lead with 28%, ahead of Nigel Farage with 20%. An ICM poll taken after the debate asked respondents who performed well and who performed badly. The net score for Nicola Sturgeon was +48 which was the highest by 20 points. After the debate Google reported a spike in people searching for information on non-residents of Scotland voting for the SNP.

   • The TV debates are a useful tool for political parties in getting their message across to the electorate. It could be argued that party election broadcasts can still be important at a national level as it enables parties to reach a large number of voters. For example, Labour’s broadcast, directed by Ken Loach reached over four million people when broadcast on TV. The same applies to televised leaders’ debates. This means that parties can reach many millions of voters more effectively than other approaches such as grassroots canvassing. However, it has been argued that party election broadcasts and televised debates do not have the impact that they once did. Younger voters in particular may access political information through the use of social media sites, video platforms or online news sources. Therefore, these voters may never be influenced by the use of televised strategies.

5. In conclusion, the use of media strategies in election campaigns is an essential component to winning any election. Today’s electorate are used to having information given to them via the media and any campaign that ignores the media is destined to fail. Although there are other strategies which are more effective at winning votes, most importantly through the use of new technology, media strategies are definitely part of the recipe to winning elections. Parties can have the biggest impact when they adopt a coordinated approach that makes use of all the various strategies available to them. For example, in 2019 the Conservatives promoted their key policy of ‘getting Brexit done’ via its approach to the press, its use of television and social media. It reinforced this through targeting of constituencies and allocation of grassroots resources in the North of England. This was seen as a key reason for their large majority in this election