Effects of Mass Media on political outcomes, individual perceptions and voting decisions

Effects of Mass Media on political outcomes, individual perceptions and voting decisions

In this era of information technology, billions of people are using smartphones and are connected to the internet around the world. Now our screen time has tremendously increased. We spend more time on mobile and TV screens than on anything else. Knowing this all, huge companies around the world are using this platform to advertise their product. Advertising influences people to buy a certain type of product. Now the advertising industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Now advertising is being done on various platforms, starting from newspapers to social media marketing. Social media marketers use various ways to advertise.

Marketing is no more limited to buying and selling of physical products. Now in fifth-generation warfare mass media is being used as a weapon to confuse people or influence them on building a narrative. This weapon is being used internationally against other countries to achieve required goals, and nationally by various political parties against other political parties to get people’s favor.

To elaborate on it I would like to throw some light on the past in the context of Pakistan. When the character assassination of Fatima Jinnah was done by a military dictator using newspaper and radio Pakistan to achieve his political interests. The government didn’t allow Fatima Jinnah to make a speech on the death anniversary of Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah on national radio twice. Even after that, dictators used to influence people using radio and newspapers on their various policies. All this continued until the internet and television replaced it for the most part.

I have personally done some courses on social media marketing and I am also part of a social media team. I have seen this all closely how social media is being used to dominate and make your narrative strong and bold. The basic of social media marketing is hammering of a specific narrative on targeted people until they accept it as a fact.

Political parties in Pakistan are spending millions of rupees on advertising and marketing. As we all know the establishment is doing all major decisions regarding the government and other administrative tasks by remaining behind the curtain. Anyhow it is believed that establishment has used mass media significantly in bringing Imran Khan into power, and no doubt PTI is the pioneer of social media marketing. PTI used it efficiently with no competition.

When we see at ISPR, which is no doubt using tools of fifth-generation warfare effectively against enemies and has successfully made their narrative enough strong to believe for the whole world. So mass media influences people greatly in making their narrative and choosing their leader to vote for.

Almost every Pakistani knows that there is a rivalry between Geo news and ARY news because they are supporting two different narratives. There were complete programs on ARY news during elections on which they were portraying a very clean and crystal clear personality of Imran Khan. And on the other side anchors on Geo news were questioning his personality all the time.

This is not just the story of Pakistan. Only in the US, billions of dollar were spent on marketing in the last elections. Some people also believed that Russia influenced the US elections by first influencing voter’s perceptions and decisions and then by interfering in the online voting system.

It is believed that Russia supported Donald Trump by harming Hillary Clinton election campaign in 2016. US intelligence agencies stated that it was directly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was further disclosed that millions of social media accounts were created who were supporting various radical political groups and events in support of trump to influence US elections. It was happened because of links between Trump associates and Russian officials.

Although Trump denies any such interference by Russia, Russia used to interfere in the US using social media due to which US President Obama once gave a direct warning to Vladimir Putin and renewed economic sanctions against Russia. That is how severe is the effect of Mass Media on political outcomes, individual perceptions and voting decisions. The political outcome over here was the victory of Donald trump which was achieved by changing the individual perception and voting decision of the citizens of the United States.

So mass media is a tool that is being used for political interests and is working very well in achieving them. We need to use it ourselves for our interests and it is needed to have literacy about this tool before becoming its victim.