Elections are all about getting yourself noticed by the voters such that they will chose your name in the ballot box. In this respect parties are enormously useful and this is one of their primary purposes. A political party is always much more than the sum of its members. Not least is the fact that party members all pay for their membership and the party can receive donations from organisations (businesses, unions etc.). An independent candidate cannot use this resource.
In the past, this was a major impediment to the independent and restricted their ability to make an impact on an election. In recent years however, the so called new media has provided an alternative way of getting your name “out there”. Facebook allows you to very quickly accumulate a group of supporters, who then with their “Friends” can distribute your message much more widely, quickly and cheaply than would be possible with, for example, a series of newspaper advertisements.
Twitter, is an even newer way of getting messages out to an audience. Even the now traditional blog can give you an essentially free platform for proposing ideas. A blog has the additional advantage that you can put together a much more coherent argument or statement of policy than would be possible in the very limited format of Twitter or Facebook.
The trouble with these new media routes to publicity is that they are self selecting. Therefore they do not carry the same weight as an interview in a newspaper – even a local paper. Thus, an independent candidate is caught between getting their message out very effectively via Facebook and their blog but then not being taken seriously while getting exposure in traditional media is an expensive and difficult process. Television is especially bad at this. They ignore all but the best known candidates. It is possible that one reason for large mainstream media outlets such as the BBC is that they would then have to give coverage to candidates whose views are offensive or otherwise unwanted. In the UK such parties as the BNP fall into this category.
Practically speaking, the BBC should not be worried about this as extremists are generally very bad at presenting themselves and their offensive views usually mean that they quickly marginalise themselves amongst the electorate as soon as they are given any publicity. Violent thugs usually manage to show themselves as violent thugs given enough time to talk about their beliefs. Of course, the BBC need to be persuaded of the validity of this idea.
All this makes it much more difficult for independent candidates to get their voice heard and makes the job of winning the election more difficult. Thus, political parties will always dominate electoral democracy. That is not to say that it is impossible for independents to make headway.
There are other means by which independents can communicate well other than via new media. It is a cliché to say that society is much more fragmented and the old consensus' of the past are not holding together today. There is however a lot of truth in it and this is to the advantage of the independent. They can bring a distinctive local perspective without the shackles of a party line to restrict them. This takes us to the next strand of how to get taken seriously by the electorate and it is a very old fashioned one. Basically, you have to get out there and meet people. There are always lots of residents associations and community groups and such like. By getting to meet these people, you will be able to connect with local people who are much more likely to remember you than just a talking head on the TV. Chances are, they will all be on Facebook so they can then follow you on there.
No comments:
Post a Comment