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The Use of Podcasting in Political Marketing: The Case of the Czech Republic
Abstract
Purpose
There is a call for more research on the interface between political relationship marketing and the use of digital technologies. To respond to such calls, this study provides a novel exploration of political podcasts as a means to enhance relationship building between politicians and the electorate. Our research draws on political relationship marketing theory to suggest that podcasts present new opportunities for relationship building and emotional engagement.
Methods
We conducted a qualitative research based on focus groups with young people in the Czech Republic in order to explore their attitudes and perceptions about political podcasting. With most research focusing on the USA, our research offers an in-depth examination of the under-researched region of Central Europe.
Findings and Contribution
Our findings inform and update existing political relationship marketing studies which seek to explore new forms of permanent campaigning and new ways for the engagement of diverse audiences. Podcasts present opportunities for relationship building between citizens and their political representatives. Authenticity, conversational dynamism, and a carefully curated personalization of the communication create a sense of attachment and belonging.
... One of the advantages of webcast showcasing is that it's significantly more straightforward to deliver than video promoting (Hutt and Speh, 2021). Making excellent recordings requires a ton of hardware, specialized expertise, altering abilities, and labor supply, consequently the notoriety of Podcasts has been amplified over the most recent few years (Tranová and Veneti, 2021). A couple of years prior, in the event that you got some information about Podcasts, I would have told you not to give any more consideration to this obsolete pattern. ...
... Be that as it may, things have changed now; numerous superstars and forces to be reckoned with have begun their own Podcasts nowadays on different subjects (Bratcher, 2021). As per Tranová and Veneti (2021), many individuals in the US are paying attention to Podcasts, and it's a critical chance for the brands to consider Podcasts in their computerized showcasing methodology. Notwithstanding, they caution that prior to leaping to the explanations behind considering Podcasts in the business computerized promoting technique, it is critical to initially figure out a Podcast. ...
... Notwithstanding, they caution that prior to leaping to the explanations behind considering Podcasts in the business computerized promoting technique, it is critical to initially figure out a Podcast. In the United States, webcast audience members have about 10 to 25% higher readiness to pay while video purchasers are seeing a comparable 12 to 28% higher eagerness to pay, recommending that this rich media takes care of its business with regards to sustaining a possibility or client (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). ...
A growing business is one that is expanding in one or more ways, and there is no single metric used to measure growth. Instead, several data points can be highlighted to show a company is growing. These include: revenue, sales, company value, profits, number of employees, and number of customers. Over the past few years, the popularity of podcasts has grown enormously. A Podcast can be understood as a series of episodes, digitally programmed and formatted, focusing on a specific theme or topics like technology, start-ups, or anything else, it can be said that it is a radio in digital form. This study sought to understand the impact of podcasts and video marketing on growth of businesses in the private sector in the United States. This was a literature based study in which relevant literature was reviewed to derive study themes. The study found that in the US, Podcasts are going mainstream, and since the brand name goes online with the Podcasts on many platforms, it increases the brand’s visibility, and there are many tricks and hacks that businesses can use to enhance brand visibility through Podcasts. The study established that podcasts and videos offer individuals and organizations in the private sector alike the ability to effectively and affordably attract, convert, and transform consumers and grow their businesses. It has also been established that Podcast listening numbers have increased by 42% in the US since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, and more and more Americans are discovering content via this medium, it is thus a great place for advertisers to reach a more tech-savvy, educated consumer. The study concludes that many businesses in the United States use podcasts to attract their target customer to their business. By talking about things that their target customer is interested in, they then gain a captive audience to promote their products or services to. Keywords: Podcasts and Video, Marketing strategy, Business growth, Private Sector, United States
... Podcast has many listeners, especially in Indonesia. It changes people's habits, especially the younger generation, in consuming news along with the growing distrust of traditional media (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). The increasing popularity of podcasts prompts political figures to start using digital audio podcasts in the political realm because radio is no longer relevant, especially for the younger generation. ...
... The media offers opportunities for political figures to shape their image by compiling and communicating their messages so that they can provide more personal, permanent, and interactive communication to the public (Harris & Harrigan, 2015). Podcast presents an opportunity to build relationships between the public and political figures (Tranová and Veneti, 2021). It gives politicians the freedom to convey messages in the preferred style, influencing public perception of the image that political figures want to project. ...
Podcasts are typically employed by political figures to attract public attention and build a political image. Puan Maharani, a chair of the House of Representatives, who has a bad image in society, uses this media to build a positive image with clarification content. This research aims to analyze the podcast ROSI by KompasTV with a guest Puan Maharani, allegedly intended to build a positive image. This is qualitative research with Fairclaugh analysis at three levels, micro, meso, and macro. At the micro level, we found representations of the texts delivered by Puan Maharani; at the meso level, we found that the existing representations were discourses to build her political image; and at the macro level, we revealed a deep understanding of the use of podcasts for creating and improving a positive political image. Puan's clarification was conveyed well in the podcast. Apart from that, regarding the issue of Megawati’s interference in Puan's position as the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan clarified no interference at all.
... In detailing how candidates conduct political marketing, study showed that candidates benefitting from a comparative advantage (incumbent and front runners) tend to rely on enthusiasm appeals more than fear in their political advertisements while more extreme candidates, and competitive political races adopt fear in the political advertisements and foster fear in their community than embrace enthusiasm in the political advertisements (Nai & Maier, 2021). In Czech Republic, finding shows that podcasts present opportunities for relationship building between the citizens and their political representative (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). According to their result, the relationship that is forged between the politician and their voters via podcasts are real and translates to positive voter behaviour change during election. ...
... Unlike the delineated studies, this study finds that political advertisements impact voters' motivation and preference. This supports the argument that political advertisements and engagement bring the politician closer to the voter and improve the bonds between the voter and the politician thereby influence the voting preference (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). ...
The debate on the influence of political advertisements is an ongoing one. It has been argued that political messages advertised during elections tend to change voter preference of candidates during election as other studies show that political advertisements have null effect on voter preferences during elections. This study attempts to lend a voice to the debate by examining the impact of newspaper political advertisements on voter behaviour during the 2019 general elections in South-South Zone of Nigeria. The study reports data from a content analysis (N=196) and a (paper-based) survey (N=400) of voters in the South-South Zone of Nigeria. Findings demonstrate that majority of the issues advertised in the newspapers by both the APC and PDP were on the economy and security. Result further demonstrates who were married and are civil servants reported to have been motivated to vote and made their candidate choice based on the issues advertised in the newspapers by the APC and PDP. Among others, the study recommends that political parties should carefully and strategically construct their newspaper political advertisement messages to reflect the political parties and their candidates' strengths and campaign promises.
... In detailing how candidates conduct political marketing, study showed that candidates benefitting from a comparative advantage (incumbent and front runners) tend to rely on enthusiasm appeals more than fear in their political advertisements while more extreme candidates, and competitive political races adopt fear in the political advertisements and foster fear in the community than embrace enthusiasm in the political advertisements (Nai & Maier, 2021). In Czech Republic, finding shows that podcasts present opportunities for relationship building between the citizens and their political representative (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). According to their result, the relationship that is forged between the politician and their voters via podcasts are real and translates to positive voter behaviour change during election. ...
... Unlike these delineated studies, this study finds that political advertisements impact voters' motivation and preference. This supports the argument that political advertisements and engagement bring the politician closer to the voter and improve the bonds between the voter and the politician thereby influencing the voting preference (Tranová & Veneti, 2021). ...
The debate on the influence of political advertisements is an ongoing one. It has been argued that political messages advertised during elections tends to change voter choice and preference of candidates during an election while others show contrary findings to the question. This study attempts to lend a voice to the debate by investigating the impact of political advertisements in voter behaviour during the 2019 general elections in South-South region of Nigeria. The study reports data from a paper-based survey (N=400) of voters in the South-South region of Nigeria. Findings uncovered that a substantial number of voters in South-South region of Nigeria were exposed to newspapers political advertisements during the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria. Data further demonstrate that voters who reported to have been motivated to vote due to issues advertised in the newspapers by the two political parties (PDP and APC) were married, civil servants and those who factored the advertised issues in their preference for a political candidate. The study concludes that the media played an agenda setting role during the 2019 presidential election campaigns.
... Meanwhile, research on podcasts has also increased ( Fig. 1). The areas of research are diverse, including those related to politics and journalism (Bird, 2025;Tranová & Veneti, 2024), advertising and marketing (Bezbaruah & Brahmbhatt, 2023;Haygood, 2007), education, including language learning, such as English, and specialized elds, such as healthcare (Kelly et al., 2022;Rosell-Aguilar, 2007). ...
This study investigates the effects of podcast format (monologue versus dialogue) on listener experience among Japanese participants (N = 296). Despite the growing popularity of dialogue-based podcasts, research comparing podcast formats remains limited. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to either a monologue or dialogue version of an AI-generated podcast discussing psychological research. We hypothesized that dialogue-based podcasts would yield higher impression ratings and better comprehension and that individual differences would moderate format preferences. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found in the overall evaluations, including enjoyment, interest, and immersion, between formats. Comprehension results revealed a single advantage of the monologue format: participants showed higher accuracy and confidence in identifying key information. Agreeableness and the need for complexity and novelty positively predicted several evaluation metrics, regardless of the format, while no significant interactions between podcast format and personality traits were observed. Free-response analysis showed predominantly positive reactions to both formats. These findings suggest that podcast format may have less impact on listener experience than assumed, and that content quality and listener traits may be more influential factors. This study contributes to the understanding of digital media consumption, with implications for podcast creators and educational content developers.
... Podcast kullanım motivasyonlarının yanında, podcast içeriklerinin analizi (Cardell & Douglas, 2022;Hardey & James, 2022;Jacobson, 2019;Koo vd., 2015;Swanson, 2010;Vasquez Heilig vd., 2021), bağımsız podcast yayıncılılarının podcast üretim motivasyonları (Markman, 2011;Markman & Sawyer, 2014) ,podcastleri gazetecilik (K. Boling, 2019;Dowling vd., 2022;Lindgren, 2021;Mehendale, 2024;Nee & Santana, 2021;Park, 2016Park, , 2017Perdomo & Rodrigues-Rouleau, 2022;von Krogh & Svensson, 2017), reklamcılık (Bezbaruah & Brahmbhatt, 2023;Moe, 2023), kurumsal performansı artırma (Waddingham vd., 2020) ve siyasal iletişim kampanyalarının bir parçası olarak kullanmaya yönelik (Tranová & Veneti, 2022) çalışmaların varlığı, akademik alan yazında konu çeşitliliğinin arttığını göstermektedir. Buna ek olarak mecranın sansür mekanizmalarından uzak oluşu, ana akım medyada yer bulamayan topluluklar ve toplumdaki dezavantajlı gruplara da seslerini duyurabilecekleri bir kanal yaratmıştır. ...
Ses ve anlatıya dayalı, kendine has kültürel üretim ve tüketim pratiklerine sahip olan podcastleri, yeni medya ekolojisinin yükselen yeni mecrası olarak nitelendirmek mümkündür. Dünyada 2000’li yılların başında ortaya çıkan bu mecra, özellikle eğitim alanındaki kullanımları üzerine yaygın olarak ele alınmış, iletişim akademisi tarafından ise Türkiye’de ancak son 5 yılda incelenmeye ve tartışılmaya başlanmıştır. Özellikle COVID-19 pandemisinin zorunlu kıldığı kapanma koşulları mecranın Türkiye’de bilinirliğinin artmasına sebebiyet vermiş, bireyler sosyalleşemedikleri bu dönemde yalnızlıklarını dindirmek, psikolojik destek almak ve kaliteli vakit geçirmek gibi nedenlerden dolayı podcastlere yönelmiştir. Bu çalışma yakın zamanda iletişim çalışmaları alan yazınına giren podcastlerin araştırmacılar tarafından nasıl ele alındığını, hangi boyutlarıyla incelendiğini ve gelişmekte olan bu alan yazının gelecekteki yönünü tespit etmeye çalışmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda alan yazının haritasını ortaya koymayı hedefleyen ve keşifsel nitelikte olan çalışma kapsam analizi olarak tasarlanmıştır. Çalışmada, akademik makaleler, tezler ve tam metni yayınlanmış bildiri metinlerinden oluşan 32 yayın, podcastleri ele alma biçimleri, araştırma tasarımları, yıllara ve türlerine göre dağılımları ile çalışmalarda rastlanan ortak temalar bakımından analiz edilmiştir. Buna göre iletişim çalışmaları alan yazınında podcastler konu dağılımlarına göre (1) podcast içeriklerine (2) podcast kullanım alışkanlıklarına, (3) podcast üretim pratiklerine yönelik olanlar ile (4) podcasti tanıtıcı ve kuramsal açıdan ele alan çalışmalar olmak üzere dört madde ile kategorize edilmiştir. Yapılan incelemeye göre podcastler üzerine en fazla yayının 2022 yılında yapıldığı ve çalışmaların yaygın olarak araştırma makalesi olduğu görülmüştür. İncelenen yayınlarda ağırlıklı olarak podcast mecrasını açıklamaya, gazetecilik ve kurumsal fayda başta olmak üzere çeşitli alanlardaki kullanımları bakımından irdelemeye yönelindiği, yakın gelecekte mecraya has kişisel anlatı pratiği üzerine ilginin artacağı öngörülmektedir.
... Only one article (from among thirty-one identified articles) investigated users' motivation for using political-type podcasts. Tranová and Veneti (2022) selected twenty people between 18 and 30 years from different educational backgrounds and occupations. These participants were divided into four focus groups in the Czech Republic. ...
This book investigates news use patterns among fve diferent generations in a time where digital media create a multi-choice media environment.
The book introduces the EPIG model (Engagement-ParticipationInformation-Generation) to study how diferent generational cohorts’ exposure to political information is related to their political engagement and participation. The authors build on a multi-method framework to determine direct and indirect media efects across generations. The unique dataset allows for comparison of efects between legacy and social media use and helps to disentangle the infuence on citizens’ political involvement in nonelection as well as during political campaign times. Bringing the newly of-age Generation Z into the picture, the book presents an in-depth understanding of how a changing media environment presents diferent challenges and opportunities for political involvement of this, as well as older generations.
Bringing the conversation around political engagement and the media up to date for the new generation, this book will be of key importance to scholars and students in the areas of media studies, communication studies, technology, political science, and political communication.
This study explores young voters’ perception of social media use and activities of political brands in light of their general apathy towards traditional politics. Focus groups were conducted with young voters to collect data. Relationship Marketing Orientation served as the study’s underpinning theoretical framework. Findings suggest that young voters perceive that mainstream political brands are not utilising social media to build online relationships. However, smaller political brands enjoyed a positive perception. This was due to them excelling on the dimensions of bonding, trust and shared values. The research provides executable recommendations to political brands and their social media teams. The research also identifies and proposes ‘customer education’ as the eighth dimension of relationship marketing orientation.
Adding to the growing scholarship on the use and role of social media in election campaigning, this article examines and compares the character and determinants of Internet users’ engagement with political party communication in 2013 and 2015 Parliamentary election campaigns in Czechia and Poland. Apart from the relationship between the thematic focus of party-produced content and the level of users’ interactivity, the study also explores the way the tonality of users’ comments is influenced by different types of party communication, as well as by users’ gender. The results suggest that the level of support for a party status is largely independent of the content of the message in both countries. The type of content has, however, an effect on the intensity of criticism by the users, with policy-related subjects generating more negativity than mobilization- or campaign-oriented statuses. Finally, the study points to both gender gaps and gender as a strong predictor of user negativity, as female users – while constituting a minority of participants in both countries – tend to be significantly less negative in their comments towards the home party. Overall, the comparative study reveals both similarities and differences in the way Czech and Polish parties utilize Facebook as campaign platform, as well as in their respective Internet users’ engagement with parties messages.
News consumption in today’s media environment is increasingly characterized by reliance on multiple platforms: People now get their news from the web, television, radio, and various social media. Employing a nationally representative survey from the United States, this study develops an index of multi-platform news use. The index is validated by testing age group differences in the way people participate in politics. Results show that Millennials are more likely to rely on multiple platforms for news. Multi-platform news is also positively related to alternative modes of political engagement. Results are discussed in light of generational shifts in political behavior.
The present study argues that political communication on social media is mediated by a platform’s digital architecture—the technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space. A framework for understanding digital architectures is introduced, and four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) are compared along the typology. Using the 2016 U.S. election as a case, interviews with three Republican digital strategists are combined with social media data to qualify the study’s theoretical claim that a platform’s network structure, functionality, algorithmic filtering, and datafication model affect political campaign strategy on social media.
This study aimed to validate and extend Hallin and Mancini’s framework of comparison to discriminate empirical types of media systems in Central and Eastern Europe. We tested and complemented their original dimensions by using aggregated data from 11 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). Our study shows the strength of political parallelism and public service broadcasting as variables for comparison. It also found that press freedom and foreign ownership point to significant differences between media systems in the region. Finally, a cluster analysis revealed the existence of three groups of media systems and provides empirical support for the assertion that there is no unique type of East-Central European media system.
This essay introduces the contributions of the volume “Social Media, Political Marketing and the 2016 U. S. Election.” Using a variety of methodological approaches, the authors investigate the communication strategies of the Democratic and Republican candidates for president together with the responses of their audience. Collectively, this research offers insights into how new communication technologies are changing both political marketing and the ways candidates and voters interact. 2017
In her book Speaking Personally (2013), Rosalind Coward maps the rise of a new cultural form – confessional storytelling in journalism. She refers to this first-person writing as perhaps the ‘biggest growth area of journalism’ (12). Interviewees and journalists alike are sharing their real-life experiences, especially suited for the more intimate and personal environments of online media. These personal stories often deal with topics that might appear trivial and domestic, and ‘the inner emotional life, the opposite of subjects considered proper journalism’ (2013: 8). This is an area that has so far received limited critical attention. This article investigates the rise of personal audio narratives in the context of podcasting. It argues that the movement towards personal narratives is intrinsically linked to the intimate nature of the audio medium. Nowhere is this trend more obvious than in recent podcast developments, where US podcasts lead the way with personal and subjective approaches to storytelling. The rapid growth of this storytelling style is escalated by recent experimentation in form and genre, afforded by podcasting, liberated from broadcast conventions and schedules. This article builds on Coward’s study of print journalism and extends it to audio forms in those podcasts. It identifies through a critical analysis of three US podcasts an emerging genre of personal narrative journalism in podcasting.
This article explores the impact of the post-2014 podcast resurgence on non-fictional audio storytelling formats. The empirical study comprises themed commentary by five significant US, European and Australian editors who commission and produce audio documentaries and features for broadcast and/or podcast. The article provides insights into the changing role played by public broadcasters, the growth of independent podcast networks and the perceived differences between radio and podcasting as a mode of delivering and receiving audio content. Of particular significance is the belief of senior commissioning editors that podcasting is fomenting a new, more informal, genre of audio narrative feature centred on a strong relationship between host and listener, with content that is ‘talkier’ and less crafted. The US audio storytelling podcast sector is growing fast, and much of it has links to a public media ethos, but how to resource it without compromising its editorial independence remains unresolved.
Few empirical studies exist to guide researchers in determining the number of focus groups necessary for a research study. The analyses described here provide foundational evidence to help researchers in this regard. We conducted a thematic analysis of 40 focus groups on health-seeking behaviors of African American men in Durham, North Carolina. Our analyses revealed that more than 80% of all themes were discoverable within two to three focus groups, and 90% were discoverable within three to six focus groups. Three focus groups were also enough to identify all of the most prevalent themes within the data set. These empirically based findings suggest focus group sample sizes that differ from many of the “rule of thumb” recommendations in the existing literature. We discuss the relative generalizability of our findings to other study contexts, and we highlight some methodological questions about adequate sample sizes for focus group research.
This paper explores the key challenges of social media use by politicians in relation to political relationship marketing. Utilising a case study of the online footprint left by Welsh politicians and their attitude towards social media based on three business based rationales – engagement, level of control, and return on investment – the paper offers an expanded conception of the perceptions and fears influencing the use of social media by politicians in terms of political relationship marketing. The article concludes with some critical thoughts regarding the understanding of relationship marketing principles by politicians. 2015
This article aims to synthesise existing theoretical and empirical work on political participation in social media, a topic especially relevant but still under-researched in post-transformation countries such as the Czech Republic. It argues for encouraging productive dialogue between the political science approach to participation research and the work in media and communication studies. First, the article sums up normative and theoretical standpoints taken when discussing and researching new media, society, and participation. It then reviews existing empirical findings from various countries. It concludes that there is no consensus on either the positive or negative effects that social media have on the extent to which people participate in political life. A possible reason for this lack of consensus is that theories of online political participation are underdeveloped. Any such theories should take into account the unique affordances of social media and the resulting social dynamics of their use.
Past research has shown that Internet use for news leads to increased political participation levels both offline and online. Other forms of digital and user-generated media such as blogs have also yielded similar results. However, little is known about podcast users and their role within democratic societies. This paper outlines findings from an online survey conducted in the United States that lend support to the notion that podcast use for news leads to political participation, even when controlling for the effects of other media forms. This paper also identifies demographic predictors for those who are likely to be podcast users.
The Apple iPod has not only become a ‘must have’ style accessory for the ‘wirefree’ generation but has also revolutionized the way we consume music. At the time of writing, (November 2005) the revolution has already started in the audio world, and has been going for the last 18 months. ‘Podcasting’ allows anyone with a PC to create a ‘radio’ programme and distribute it freely, through the internet to the portable MP3 players of subscribers around the world. Podcasting not only removes global barriers to reception but, at a stroke, removes key factors impeding the growth of internet radio: its portability, its intimacy and its accessibility. This is a scenario where audiences are producers, where the technology we already have assumes new roles and where audiences, cut off from traditional media, rediscover their voices.
This article examines the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and how these Web strategies are used within a political communication context. The data focus on how political parties (and their leaders) in Britain use Web 2.0 applications. We consider whether the content political elites published in their Web 2.0 applications is shovelware and more appropriate for Web 1.0, or if a genuinely Web 2.0 style of political communication is emerging. We investigate the extent to which there has been a shift in the way British politicians communicate or if caution over co-production, coupled with the demands of electioneering, is restricting the development of interactivity. Our analysis suggests that British political parties have sought to create a “Web 1.5” that offers the advantages of both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
The marketing mix and its 4Ps have remained the marketing paradigm for decades. In the article it is argued that the foundation for this paradigm is weak and that it has had negative effects on marketing research and practice. Contemporary research into services marketing and industrial marketing demonstrates that a new approach to marketing is required. This new approach is based on building and management of relationships. A paradigm shift in marketing is under way. The thoughts and actions of marketing academics and practitioners should not be constrained by a paradigm from the 1950s and 1960s.
The significance of politics and election for societies demands the integrated engagement of researchers in politics and marketing. The natural diversity of political contexts, structures and processes complicates the process of theory development in political marketing, but continuous change in political marketplaces provides a rich ground for study. Recent considerations on the evolving dominant logic of marketing - a perspective that emphasizes intangible resources, the co-creation of value and sustainable relationships - resonate with the interests of political marketing scholars. The extension of marketing models to social and political contexts increases their contribution to societal welfare; directions for future work in the field are proposed.
This paper attempts to apply Relationship Marketing Theory to the political arena. Contrasts between traditional Management School of thought and the Relational School are drawn. A typology of political relationships is induced from primary ethnographic research. Relationships are a fundamental asset of an organisation. Political parties need to acknowledge the importance of nurturing and developing a variety of relationships as a long-term strategic imperative. Crucially, relationships are predictive of behaviour and are less likely to volatile swings (Gordon, 1998). With voter volatility and electoral inactivity increasing, enhancing and developing mutually beneficial relationships with supporters and potential supporters appears appealing. Relationships are fluid and dynamic rather than being static. Relationships can develop and become stronger or they may then erode and weaken. However, as long as the relationship remains above a critical threshold, transactions may continue. A critical incident may occur that causes specific behavioural changes that will affect the nature and level of electoral transactions. These critical incidents can be either positive or negative and may have an impact on relational development or erosion.
Recently, research revolving around blogs has flourished. Usually, academics illustrate what blogs are, motivations to blog, and, only to some extent, their role in politics. Along these lines, we examine the impact of digital politics by looking specifically at blog readers. Although blog readers might be considered at the forefront of a new technological revolution, and people have speculated about their participatory habits both online and off, little research has specifically looked at this growing proportion of the population. This article models factors that predict traditional and online forms of participation, presenting a portrait of a new type of political advocate.
Prior research has demonstrated a clear negativity effect (greater weighting of candidate weaknesses compared with strengths) in the evaluation of U.S. presidential candidates in each of the past six elections analyzed. The authors adopt a motivational view and question the robustness of this finding. They reanalyze past National Elec-tion Studies data along with new data and conclude that the negativity effect is not universal across voters; it is a robust effect only for voters who dislike the candidate. They argue that previous findings are due to aggregation of data across voters who vary in their motivations.
Purpose
– Use of digital media channels is growing in public communication. Given the importance of public trust in government figures and agencies, combined with the risk and fear of misrepresentation inherent in online interaction, it is important to develop theoretical frameworks for investigating the ways in which authenticity is constructed in online public affairs communication. The purpose of this paper is to produce a preliminary model of authenticity in online communication, with particular emphasis on public institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper first develops a theoretical model of authenticity from existing literature in various disciplines. It then uses that model to explore a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the comments on the US State Department blog, DipNote, from its inception to the end of the Bush Administration.
Findings
– Despite limited interactions between DipNote authors and commenters, the types and quantity of responses to posts indicate a desire by some readers to discuss the topics raised in the blog space. These responses also suggest that at least some commenters find that the blog meets their criteria for authenticity to the extent necessary to engage in community‐type interaction within its virtual boundaries. A functional‐structural analysis of the blog responses supports the essential components of the theoretical model proposed, which suggests that DipNote presents a mixed form of authenticity.
Originality/value
– Authenticity is particularly important in the public sphere, and public institutions are increasingly engaging with social media as a means of connecting with constituencies. This paper proposes a starting‐point for theory development regarding this significant emerging area of communication.
The Oxford Handbook of British Politics has been conceived, not just to illustrate both the breadth and depth of scholarship that is to be found within the field, but also to demonstrate the vibrancy and critical self-reflection that has cultivated a much sharper and engaging, and notably less insular, approach to the terrain it seeks to explore and understand. In showcasing the diversity now found in the analysis of British politics, the Handbook is built upon three foundations. The first principle that underpins the volume is a broad understanding of the political. It covers a much broader range of topics, themes, and issues than would commonly be found within a book on British politics. This emphasis on an inclusive approach also characterises the second principle that has shaped this collection namely, diversity in relation to commissioned authors. The final principle focuses on the distinctiveness of the study of British politics. Each article seeks to reflect on what is distinctive both in terms of the empirical nature of the issue of concern, and the theories and methods that have been deployed to unravel the nature and causes of the debate. This Handbook draws upon the intellectual strengths of the study of British politics, reflects the innate diversity and inclusiveness of the discipline, isolates certain distinctive issues and then reflects on their broader international relevance, and finally looks to the future by pointing towards emerging or overlooked areas of research.
Amidst the burgeoning literature on the use social media in electoral politics, there are still relatively few studies that seek to understand developments in digital campaigning from the inside. Drawing on 9 semi-structured interviews with Greek political communication consultants, we address this gap. Theoretically, we draw from Kreiss, Lawrence, & McGregor’ s analytical framework that seeks to account for the ways that campaigns perceive their candidates in relation to audiences, affordances, and genres of different social media platforms, as well as the timing of the electoral cycle, in order to effectively study strategic social media communication. Our findings show that Greek campaigns are embracing many social media but still have a relatively rudimentary understanding of the affordances of different platforms and their communicative cultures. Where campaign communication strategies are shaped by politicians, they typically favor one platform as a channel for all their content. Our findings demonstrate that different media systems and political cultures impact considerably on the adoption of digital communication strategiesand can be quite far from the highly professional and sophisticated American model. Findings are discussed in relation to ongoing debates around campaign professionalization and the role of platforms.
Permanent campaigning emerged as a concept in the 1970s in studies of US politics but is now recognized as a universal phenomenon. Despite its long history, there has been no attempt to build a holistic picture of the elements that constitute a permanent campaign. Generally, researchers focus on tactical elements, situating their use within an overall strategy, but there is a lack of a broader methodological framework for holistically measuring adherence to the permanent campaigning. This article presents results of a meta-analysis of relevant research to provide a framework to understand how permanent campaigning is practiced. Our study showed there were three reasonably discrete forms of campaigning activities that had been identified: those in which permanent campaign strategies are related to capacity building and strategy; a second, in which permanent campaigning relates to paid and owned media; and a third in which earned media is the main focus. In mapping these studies, we identify the common features of permanent campaigning, identifying strong and weak indicators and the extent these are employed by the government, parties, or elected representatives and within which political systems: parliamentarism or presidentialism. Our framework can be applied in future comparative research to understand trends in political communication.
Purpose
Podcasts have become a main content delivery platform in the last decade. Since not enough studies examined the wider population adoption patterns of podcasts in general and outside the USA in particular, the purpose of this paper is to examine the socio-demographics of podcast listeners and the uses and gratifications fulfilled by listening to podcasts using Israel’s most popular podcast as our case study.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors uploaded a survey on the podcast platforms aiming to identify their socio-demographic profiles of listeners (n=960) and where they listen to the podcast. Next, the authors conducted follow-up interviews with 100 respondents to understand their main uses and gratifications fulfilled while listening to the podcast.
Findings
The findings of this survey indicate podcast listeners in Israel as mostly male, with self-reported high income, under the age of 45, highly educated and nearly half work in the high-tech sector. Follow-up interviews identified that the main uses and gratifications from listening to podcasts were cognitive – acquiring new knowledge, social – a desire to share new data with friends, entertainment, hobby and a way to assist falling asleep.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study indicate that access to podcasts in Israel is utilized mostly by members of already advantaged and technology-oriented groups, thus potentially widening existing societal gaps.
Originality/value
The study examines the podcast adoption in a country whose podcast adoption patterns were not yet explored, thus contributes toward mapping of the global usage of podcasts. It portrays podcasts in Israel as a platform used mostly by members of privileged and technology-oriented groups, which is similar to findings regarding the demographics of podcast listeners in the USA. Some of the uses and gratifications are similar to that in the USA while others, such as the desire to share knowledge and efficient time management, are unique and reflect the impact of the local culture and conditions on podcast adoption.
With the integration of social media in political communication repertoires, politicians now permanently campaign for support online. By promoting their personal agenda, politicians increasingly profile themselves independent from their associated parties on the web (i.e., self-personalization). By focusing on self-personalization as a multi-layered concept (i.e., professional, emotional, private self-personalization), this study investigates both the use and consequences of self-personalization on Facebook. A manual content analysis of politicians’ Facebook posts (N = 435) reveals that self-personalization is indeed often used as a communication style on Facebook and is most often present in visual communication. Moreover, the study shows that the use of a more emotional and private style provides a beneficial tool for politicians’ impression management. Publishing emotional and private content yields positive effects on audience engagement, suggesting audiences’ demand for more intimate and emotional impressions of public figures on the web.
Cambridge Core - General - Qualitative Research for the Information Professional - by G. E. Gorman
In 2004, a new movement began. It was one that promised democratization of media production tools and the means to freely distribute work. Using domestic tools and open source software, the pioneers threatened to disrupt the top-down media ecosystem that we were used to. That movement was podcasting. In the 10 years that have passed since we first heard the word ‘podcast’ thousands of podcasts have started, audiences have grown steadily, technologies have evolved and the medium has become increasingly professionalized. By 2015, the medium had become a significant talking point through the success of podcasts such as Serial, Start-up and WTF, suggesting that podcasting may have reached maturity.
Building on a survey of media institutions in eighteen West European and North American democracies, Hallin and Mancini identify the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables which have shaped their evolution. They go on to identify three major models of media system development (the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist and Liberal models) to explain why the media have played a different role in politics in each of these systems, and to explore the forces of change that are currently transforming them. It provides a key theoretical statement about the relation between media and political systems, a key statement about the methodology of comparative analysis in political communication and a clear overview of the variety of media institutions that have developed in the West, understood within their political and historical context.
This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy and should not be assumed to be antithetical to proper political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, we should seek to understand it, to create marketing-literate criticism to distinguish between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that aspire to engender citizen engagement and participation. Furthermore, we can take lessons from marketing: enjoyment matters, what citizens think and feel matters, and just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.
This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to “proper” political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it - to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: Enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.
As businesses increasingly stress the importance of cooperation and collaboration with suppliers and customers, relationship marketing is emerging as the "core" of all marketing activity. In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in business and academic interest in relationship marketing, yet no comprehensive book has been available to present key concepts, theories, and applications. The editors have assembled an authoritative and global cast of chapter contributors and crafted a volume that will become the seminal, founding work in this growing field. Their approach is eclectic, including a broad coverage of topics, diverse theoretical and conceptual paradigms, and global viewpoints.
The Handbook of Relationship Marketing covers the entire scope of relationship marketing, including:
* The domain, evolution, and growth of relationship marketing
* The conceptual and theoretical foundations of relationship marketing
* Partnership issues that firms must face to enable relationship marketing
* New ways of teaching and learning relationship marketing
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/handbook-of-relationship-marketing/book9174
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Relationship-Marketing-Atul-Parvatiyar/dp/0761918108
Authenticity is a popular buzzword in electoral politics: Electoral candidates and politicians are expected to be authentic in their public interactions. Since 2008, campaigning via social media has become an integral part of elections in the United States, and continues to gain importance. In such an environment, this paper presents research into the role of authenticity in electoral social media campaigns. Using Gilpin, et al.'s (2010) definition of authenticity as the theoretical basis, interviews were conducted with U.S. Democrats to query their perceptions of candidates' Facebook pages, and particularly in relation to authenticity. This study refines existing definitions of authenticity and offers insights into how electoral candidates can demonstrate authenticity in electoral social media campaigns.
The purpose of this paper is to review the notion of branding and evaluate its applicability to political parties. As ideological politics is in decline, branding may provide a consistent narrative where voters feel a sense of warmth and belonging. The paper aims to build an understanding of the complexity of building a political brand where a combination of image, logo, leadership, and values can all contribute to a compelling brand narrative. It investigates how competing positive and negative messages attempt to build and distort the brand identity. A critical review of branding, relationship marketing, and political science literature articulates the conceptual development of branding and its applicability to political parties. The success or failure of negative campaigning is due to the authenticity of a political party's brand values—creating a coherent brand story—if there is no distance between the brand values articulated by the political party and the values their community perceives then this creates an “authentic” brand. However, if there is a gap this paper illustrates how negative campaigning can be used to build a “doppelgänger brand,” which undermines the credibility of the authentic political brand. The paper argues that political parties need to understand how brand stories are developed but also how they can be used to protect against negative advertising. This has implications for political marketing strategists and political parties. This paper draws together branding theory and relationship marketing and incorporates them into a framework that makes a contribution to the political marketing literature.
In this article we argue that the state of theory and concept development in political marketing needs to be related to several epistemological as well as topical themes and issues. Seven meta-theoretical issues are discussed with regard to current theoretical position of political marketing research and some initial recommendations are made on how these issues can be developed further. The second part of the article focuses on topical aspects of theory and concept development in political marketing and highlights nine themes for further research. These themes of political marketing are singled out because of their characteristics which show them to be significantly distinct from commercial marketing practice, and therefore need more careful modelling in concepts and theories of political marketing.
The role of traditional media and the Internet in relation to young people’s political participation has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. Starting from a notion of differential media use and an encompassing notion of political participation, this article tests the relationships between media use (newspaper, television, and Internet) and offline and online forms of political participation. Findings from a national survey (n = 2,409, age 16 to 24) reveal that a variety of Internet uses are positively related with different forms of political participation, whereas the relationship between most uses of traditional media and participation are weak, albeit positive. The study rejects the predictive power of duration of media use but finds support for the type of media use. Positive relationships between online communication and noninformational uses of the Internet vis-à-vis participation are found. The research demonstrates how a wider and more contemporary conception of political participation, together with more detailed measures of media use, can help to gain better insight in the roles media can play in affecting participatory behavior among the Internet generation.
The public relations of the UK general election of 2005 is examined in the light of the active promotional culture of British politics, a culture that is especially active at election time. The PR or 'spin' can be seen as a presentational trellis offering to voters, mostly via the media, glimpses of policies and politicians which are favourable to the originating party. The purpose of the trellis for the parties is to maximise their electoral advantage and to minimise their disadvantage. The major obstacle to their success is the capacity of the media to brush aside the trellis and to report on the 'other side'. Whatever the benefits and costs for democracy of this tension between partisan presentation and journalism, there is little evidence that voter disengagement with electoral politics is caused by these public relations shows. Political PR is part of the UK's promotional culture; voter disengagement relates to other systemic and more causal features of contemporary British society. A small purposive (but unrepresentative) survey of campaign observers showed key features of political PR servicing the fundamentals of party, policy and personality.
Relationship Marketing, and more broadly the placement of networks at the heart of marketing theory and practice, has sometimes been seen by practitioners and theorists alike as a universal panacea. Yet, given the contemporary phenomenon of rapid decline in direct participation in politics, with tumbling party membership rosters, the relevance of relationship marketing and its capacity to re-energise democratic politics has intuitive plausibility. We therefore seek to theorise about relationship marketing in a political context, arguing that the development of a theoretical construct and rigorous conceptual frameworks would invigorate current research on political marketing. We distinguish in particular two approaches - a micro view dealing with specific entity and exchange-oriented aspects, while a macro-perspective will look at the interplay with the wider political structures and the overall political system. Beyond this, the authors are also acutely conscious of the applied perspective and explore various methods by which the concept could be operationalised and grounded in practice. In this article we therefore seek to remedy the literature's remarkable neglect of relationship marketing in politics. There is a crisis in democracy when people perceive politics as something which happens to them rather than something over which they exert ownership, and such a crisis was created in part by the substitution of political marketing tools for face to face contact. These authors thus suggest how political marketing potentially can help solve a dilemma it has helped create.
Political marketing, as a set of techniques for policy design and development, was welcomed as a route towards a more participatory form of democracy. However, as New Labour attempted to rebrand itself to suit key segments of the electorate, we find that voters are not participating to any greater extent. In fact sections of the electorate are rejecting the democratic process, feeling that parties have little care for those outside their target segment. This paper questions the way New Labour employed marketing and, drawing on primary data, relates this to the dramatic fall in turnout in 2001.
This article reports a comprehensive overview of new data on the levels of individual membership of political parties in twenty contemporary European democracies. Among the patterns noted in the data is the contrast between large and small democracies, as well as that between new and older democracies. However, the most striking feature to be noted is the sheer extent and consistency of membership decline through to the end of the 1990s. Not only have levels of party membership continued to decline as a proportion of the electorate, a trend which was already apparent at the end of the 1980s, there is now also compelling evidence of a major decline in the absolute numbers of party members across all the long-established European democracies. As these data clearly reveal, parties in contemporary Europe are rapidly losing their capacity to engage citizens.
This study examines the patterns and uses of podcast users. A survey was conducted of 354 fans of shows that are podcast. These fans were found via fan websites of the shows on Facebook and MySpace. The results indicate that the bulk of the podcast users are well educated and affluent. The respondents also prefer to listen to the podcasts via portable devices. Almost 90% of the users reported actually using the show they downloaded. Motivations of using podcasts include entertainment, timeshifting, library building, a favorable view of advertising and a social aspect of the podcasts that centers around discussing the shows with other fans. There is some evidence here to suggest that the social factor motivation is also a predictor of podcast use. Heavy users of podcasts also reported to not have a negative view of the advertisers who supported the podcasts.
Relationship marketing is an old idea but a new focus now at the forefront of services marketing practice and academic research.
The impetus for its development has come from the maturing of services marketing with the emphasis on quality, increased recognition
of potential benefits for the firm and the customer, and technological advances. Accelerating interest and active research
are extending the concept to incorporate newer, more sophisticated viewpoints. Emerging perspectives explored here include
targeting profitable customers, using the strongest possible strategies for customer bonding, marketing to employees and other
stakeholders, and building trust as a marketing tool. Although relationship marketing is developing, more research is needed
before it reaches maturity. A baker’s dozen of researchable questions suggests some future directions.