Personal Media for Local Election Campaigns

Abstract

“Personal media” are extremely important in election campaigns for local offices because they actually contact the local citizens and they can perceive people’s reactions and feedback immediately.  Using personal media is a way to transmit messages about the election campaign directly to the message receivers so they can be aware of information about the candidate and policies. Personal media have deep penetration and truly understand the specific local culture of the message receivers much better than other media. The main goals of using personal media in an election campaign are to inform, create understanding, change attitudes and ultimately change behavior so that citizens will support the candidate and the party and vote for them. This article outlines guidelines on how candidates running for local administrative positions can use personal media effectively in their campaign. The ideas can be applied and adapted by political teams in the future. Academics and other interested people can use these concepts and develop better methods of using the power of personal media in election campaigns.