What is the effect of 200 election channels on people’s participation?/ Persuasion with the media – Mehr news agency Iran and world’s news
Abbas Rezaei fruitful The media researcher told Mehr reporter about the idea of launching election channels and its effect on people’s participation in elections: Participation in elections is a complex and multi-layered category and subject to a wide range of variables. However, a general rule in political advertising is that as the election atmosphere becomes more visible in the society, the number of people who are convinced to participate in the vote increases, this rule comes from the principles of psychology.
He added: If the country’s media ecosystem, including radio and other media, can direct people’s attention to the issue of elections in any way, they will be able to encourage them to participate. If the new radio channels can work in this framework, they can be effective. However, there are ifs and buts and ambiguities in this field that should be taken into account.
Measuring the effectiveness of launching 200 election channels on the participation rate
Rezai fruitful Regarding measuring the effectiveness of the launch of election channels on the level of people’s participation, he stated: First, to measure the effectiveness of the launch of these channels on the level of participation, we must have an accurate picture of the possible level of participation before launching them. If I want to speak to the research method literature, we will not be able to document changes in the dependent variable unless we know how much it was before the independent variable took effect. Regardless of this issue, with any amount of participation, after the election, it can be claimed that part of the participation was the product of launching new television channels, and it is clear that such a statement will not be acceptable.
In the other part of his speech, this media researcher emphasized the necessity of problem analysis and stated: The second issue is problem analysis; In human sciences, the precise statement of the problem is usually considered the most important part of conducting any research. Many political mistakes in the country are caused by the fact that issues are not formulated correctly. Based on this, it is important to ask if our problem in the issue of participation in the elections is the lack of media channels? Beyond that, basically, the issue of participation at the media level can be resolved and addressed? I think that solving the participation problem requires a decision at the political level, rather than requiring media initiatives such as the launch of new regional channels. Many times, too much emphasis on the media and exaggerating the effectiveness of media strategies and policies leads to neglecting the inefficiencies and the problem of another level of decision-making.
The effectiveness of national media in attracting political participation depends on social authority
Referring to the influence of social authority in political participation, he added: If we want to discuss only at the media level; The effectiveness of the national media in attracting political participation is more dependent on its social authority than the number of channels of this media. Social authority is also subject to other variables such as flexibility, honesty, transparency, audience-oriented, media justice and inclusiveness to the tastes and opinions of the majority of people.
Rezai fruitful He added: I believe that increasing the effectiveness of radio and television in attracting political participation, rather than requiring temporary and short-term tactics in the days leading up to the elections, requires a permanent change in approach and quality. Without this change, occasional tactics or ideas based on quantity and volume will be considered dishonest by the audience.
In a situation where national media channels are suffering from content poverty and some of them are simply rebroadcasting the production of distant years, what mechanism will be used to fill the antenna in 200 channels? He stated about the mechanism of content production in these channels: There are ambiguities in the field of the functioning mechanism of these channels that make it difficult to judge their effectiveness. The most important issue is the content; In a situation where national media channels are suffering from content poverty and some of them are simply rebroadcasting the production of distant years, what mechanism will be used to fill the antenna in 200 channels. Do the provincial centers of national media have the capacity and infrastructure of this huge volume of content production or not? Are the volunteers going to produce content themselves? If so, can the candidates produce programs according to television standards? The next point is about the distribution of advertising opportunities in these networks; In areas such as metropolises where the number of candidates is very large, how will the opportunity to use the regional network antenna be distributed among them. Or, for example, in cities and smaller constituencies, where the election structure is mainly dependent on communication Rudder It is about ethnic patterns or kinship ties, how much is it necessary to launch a TV channel for advertising?
In the end, this media activist said by discussing the audience of these channels: In the situation that national networks are facing a decrease in audience according to radio and television surveys, who will be the viewers of short-term channels? We know that a media without an audience is problematic in terms of existence and identity, the establishment of any media without accurate audience analysis will not lead anywhere. The trial and error approach cannot be efficient, especially about these networks that will be active for a short time. These are the questions that without answering them, it is not possible to get an accurate estimate of the effectiveness of this idea.