Hybridization in political election campaign communication
Hybridization comprises the fusion of country- and culture-specific election campaigning methods with contemporary styles and techniques.
Hybridization in political campaigning is concerned with the diffusion of political communication practices “mediated by cultural factors and accentuated by specific institutional arrangements” and “where country-specific, traditional modes are supplemented with select features of transnationally traded modern practices" An important role in the development of campaign practices plays the political culture in the specific country.
The following table shows the most important factors shaping the way of hybridization: Electoral system Party system Media system Types, levels and frequencies of elections Public vs. private funding of campaigns Modus of voter registration Table 1:Mediating system factors Those factors shown in the table interact and shape the way of how the hybridization is practiced in a specific country and the cultural and practices of the existing campaigning culture in that country matter as well.
The three top categories Electoral, Party and Media System show in which area the campaign practices are influenced.
The shift and changes in political campaigning in different countries have been visible for a long time and there have been different explanations in research.
Often it is also used as a synonym for professionalization[5] which means for example that major parties use more and more external consultants for campaigning.
In this approach, change in parties and their relationship to voters leads to the fact that “many major parties turned to experts in marketing and public relations, opinion polling, and other techniques to discover how they could effectively appeal to citizens”.
[8] The idea of convergence of campaigning “comprises a targeted, uni-linear diffusion of political communication practices from the United States to other countries”.
He discovers a mixed picture where media are becoming more important both as an arena and an actor in the political communication process.
[12] “The transformation process in Sweden is, however, rather slow and does not correspond in any way to the dramatic changes taking place within the electorate and the media system”.
[13] Nord names several reasons for Sweden's particular hybridization: First, he indicates that the political and electoral context in Sweden, which means a proportional and party-based electoral system, compromises “a possible global diffusion of campaign and marketing techniques based upon a two-party system and candidate centered”.
[12] Therefore he identifies existing laws and regulations and, even more, public perceptions of parties, politics, and elections.
Nord's study shows a particular insight how hybridization can look like in a Western European country.
To examine hybridization processes in a Latin American country, Corres de la Torre and Catherine Conaghan analyzed the election campaign race between presidency candidates Rafael Correa and Alvora Noboa in the year 2006.
Their results show that there is a hybrid nature of campaigning in Ecuador: They found that both candidates used esp.
television as a platform to present their personalities and project negative images of the competitor (e.g. in a TV spot where the other one was pictured as reckless capitalist).
“Both camps employed the standard communications tactics, from ‘going negative’ on opponents to the endless repetition of simple, understandable messages as in Noboa's promise of ‘jobs, jobs, and more jobs.’ The focus on media strategies, however, did not preclude more old-fashioned efforts at grassroots organizing; both organizations recognized the need to establish local networks of supporters for the ground war of political canvassing and getting out the vote on election Day".
[17] In his study Japanese Lower House Campaigns in Tradition: Manifest Changes or Fleeting Fads?
[18] Recently he noticed a significant change in campaigns, like the increasing use of voter-chasing strategies which was earlier very local becoming higher on a national level.
For example parties started in 2003 to publish manifesto, i.e., central issues and election main topics, ahead of the election which was new for Japanese party but is an established practice for example in Western European countries.
As a causal factor he names the growing number of independent voters in Japan who are no longer bound to any specific party, so a change in the electorate.
Additionally, he names media- and technology-related developments as factors for new implementation of campaigning practices and comes to the conclusion that “the concurrence of elements of continuity and change in electioneering has led to a ‘hybridization’ of Lower House election campaigns".
[19] The wide concept of hybridization covers a broad variety of changes and gives a rough frame for different processes.
And a constraint that should be considered when talking about hybridization is a conclusion Swanson and Mancini made: “it would be wrong to conclude that campaign practices in each country have followed paths which are completely unique".
Americanization, globalization, and secularization: Understanding the convergence of media systems and political communication.
Japanese Lower House Campaigns in Transition: Manifest Change or Fleeting Fads?
Practicas y precios del proselitismo presidential: Apuntes sobre medios y campanas electorales en America Latina y Estados Unidos.
Politics, media, and modern democracy: An international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences.
