Media campaign an essential tool in 2024 elections

As the date approaches for the 2024 National Assembly elections on April 4, candidates running for parliament intensified their campaigns through different venues, including the media, essential for those eager to secure a seat in parliament. Media campaigns play an integral role in candidates’ bids to reach parliament, and KUNA explored this issue by interviewing academics.

Advertisement-heavy media campaigns tend to be the main medium through which candidates try to reach their constituents and are essential for their chances to reach the National Assembly, professor of anthropology at Kuwait University (KU), Dr. Yaqoub Al-Kanderi, told KUNA. In addition to regular media channels, social media—with their far-reaching influence—were added to the advertisement arsenal of candidates due to their direct connection with the voters, he added.

With all said and done, media campaigns might backfire on candidates if they choose to deliver controversial messages to the masses, causing them to lose their race, he affirmed. Dr. Al-Kanderi stressed that media campaigns, whether online or through other methods, must be balanced and take into consideration issues of importance to eligible voters for the candidates to succeed in their parliamentary quest.

Professor of Psychology at KU, Dr. Hamad Al-Tayyar, touched on the psychological impact of media campaigns on the voters and candidates’ chances to win a seat in parliament, noting that there were several factors that contributed to the delivery of a successful campaign. Body language, the tone of voice, as well as verbal and vernacular skills, are some of the skills that candidates must learn to lure voters to them, he affirmed.

He noted that mastering communication and showcasing crowd-connection skills might also attract voters who were still on the fence about whether to vote or not. Nowadays, media have become more far-reaching in their influence on voters, especially with the advent of social media platforms, affirmed Dr. Hussein Ibrahim, a professor of public relations and media at KU.

The message must be clear to voters even with the latest technology at their disposal, said Dr. Ibrahim, adding that intensifying media campaigns and utilizing important communication skills would have a strong influence on how voters cast their ballots come Thursday. At the end of the day, the main reason for the success of a media campaign all boils down to having the right message delivered to candidates, as he pointed out.