Media and Elections

3rd edition, 2012

Topic IndexParty and Candidate Campaign Media Strategies

Parties and candidates frequently use a range of techniques for campaigning, however, journalists should be familiar with, and cast a critical eye on, these techniques in order to ensure they are carrying out incisive and balanced reporting. This is important both in order to ensure that media are not themselves manipulated, but also so that they can explain these strategies to their audience.

Some common approaches parties and candidates use during campaigns can be summarized as follows:

Dictate the agenda. Usually competing political parties or candidates prefer to fight a campaign on familiar terrain. One party may debate an election on the issue of, say, management of the economy. Another may focus on national security. The success of their campaign strategies depends on their abilities to spur media coverage of their chosen issues, and neglect those of the opposition. Journalists should be attentive to these intentions and provide balanced focus on each contender’s issues as well as concerns of voters.

Use soft news to make parties and candidates appear voter-friendly. This tactic is as old as politics. Politicians shake hands, kiss babies, drink a pint of beer, go bowling – whatever is the culturally appropriate way to show that they are someone a voter would want to get to know as a friend or neighbour. Voters generally know that these soft news opportunities are staged, yet the tactics are still successful in their intention. Soft news is also a means of avoiding issues that might be potentially damaging to a party or candidate platform. Journalists often face a dilemma, therefore. Soft news is not really proper news – however, media outlets competition by rival media outlets if they do not run it. This is one reason why election coverage can sometimes tend toward superficial and uninformative content.

Change the subject. This is closely related to the two previous points. In instances where events may damage a platform, parties and candidates will hastily seek to shift media focus elsewhere, such as the opposition’s shortcomings, or a different manifesto pledge. Incumbent parties are especially well placed to do this, as they can easily divert attention to official events or announcements.

Maintain media coverage. Notwithstanding the points mentioned above, party and candidate media managers generally work on the assumption that there is no such thing as bad publicity. There is an element of truth in this stance during elections. No one ever voted for a candidate they had not heard of.

Plant negative stories about the opposition. Attitudes toward negative political campaigning vary enormously depending on political culture. In most cases, however, verbal attacks on rival parties and candidates are considerably less effective than cleverly placed negative stories. A journalist is therefore responsible, when confronted with negative stories, to ask the question: “who is telling me this – and what are their potential motives?”

The Reporters Without Borders Handbook for Journalists During Elections provides these tips in dealing with campaign tactics and rhetoric:

Do not settle for simply relaying information from a candidate or a party, but try to explain what they are doing.

Do not simply transcribe press releases and other announcements, even in paraphrase. Instead, compare what they say with what these candidates have accomplished in their previous posts, or with the positions they have taken in previous campaigns. Bring in experts to assess their proposals in light of the needs of the country or community and document possible contradictions and conflicts of interest.

Put in quotes what is said in press releases or in press conferences and/or attribute them properly.

Be assertive in press conferences. Do not simply listen. Demand explanations, specifics, examples, numbers and justifications.

Do not rely on a party’s numbers in reporting the attendance at a rally. Compare the party’s statistics with estimates of other sources – journalists, residents of the area, members of police forces or anyone else present.

Learn to recognize events designed by candidates in order to report them in context. Pay attention to the responses of people who are present for a candidate’s visit to a school, a hospital or a business. Did his speech prompt any reactions? Were all of these positive? Did those who were visited ask any questions? Were these spontaneous? Remaining after the candidate leaves is a good way to learn more.

Verify that a candidate’s official message corresponds to his or her convictions. If a candidate visits a school to say that he always considered education to be a priority, find out if he has previously initiated projects in this field.

Clearly distinguish between official activities of government members and their activities as candidate or party member.[i]

[i] Herve Barraquand and Martine Anstett. Handbook for Journalists During Elections (Paris: International Organization of La Francophone, nd), 52-53

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Media and Elections