Politicians sold like cornflakes

When in 1989 House of Commons proceedings became televised for the first time, the commissioned research showed that when appearing on TV 55% of the impression made by a person derives from his image. Body language and voice scored 38%. Astonishingly as less as 7% depended on what the person was actually saying.

Such findings were the grounds for development of a new trend in British politics where voters are regarded less as citizens and more as consumers while political causes and candidates are promoted and sold in the same way that advertising campaigns sell cars, fashions or drugs. Bob Franklin described this phenomenon as ‘packaging politics’.

 Packaging of the politics is becoming central to processes of governance.  Some argue that telegenic politicians and soundbites have supplemented the rational and sustained advocacy of policy. What are the reasons behind this? Certainly plenty of them – one of the most significant though is the changing media environment. Broadcast media can communicate less information than print and airtime as a scarce resource has forced politicians to craft their programmes into <soundbites>, which can be slotted into ninety– second news items.

The victory of <style> over <content> is evident. Voters choose in the ballot box in much the similar way as consumers choose in the marketplace. The prettier, the better.  Image building became crucial in the contemporary world of political campaigns because of publics’ general lack of motivation to search for information when making voting decisions. . This gave rise to so called ‘cult of personality’. Party leaders are more and more often selected for an attractive image they project on television. This in turn leads to  trivializing politics. To fulfill the demands of infotainment culture, gaffs by politicians paradoxically become the headlines and receive wide coverage in national news. The coverage from parliament focuses on sensational and dramatic aspects of proceedings. In this regard it is not surprising that respect for politics diminishes.

On the second side, mass public, bored with elaborate deliberations of past generation of politicians, finds modern elections, which become the choice between the personalities rather than policies, more exciting.  However, the history of Labour spin with the lowest turnout of electorate in 2001 elections proves that the emphasis on presidentialism, soundbites and presentation causes electorate’s disenchantment with the political process. I think that just as advertising is off putting to people similarly politics using same tactics diminishes people’s respect to this domain of social life.

Do you think that PR is to be blamed by that? It is fair to say that deep access to policy making deprives PR? From being an honest and open tool of communication with audiences and stakeholders does it become a mean of public manipulation ?