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This chapter ties the contribution of the chapters of the book and sets an agenda for future research. Key lessons for practitioners, from each chapter, are collated and discussed in this chapter. The chapter also asks a number of questions about the ethics of both political branding and related political marketing communications. At the heart of the conceptualisation of parties and candidates as brands is the logic and relevance of marketing ideology and technology in the political realm. Advocates of the introduction of marketing principles and techniques to the realm of politics have suggested that as the citizen is treated more as a consumer, and so placed at the heart of the decision-making processes, a stronger relationship will develop between citizens and political institutions. The citizen-consumer, it is argued, becomes empowered through being at the heart of political brand management and product development and so more trusting of institutions through their engagement. While it is clear that marketisation has impacted on politics, marketing plays a more significantly role in branding strategies, shaping platforms to align with public attitudes, market testing messages and the integrated marketing communication techniques apparent in campaigning innovation. This final chapter raises the question of whether political marketing communication, as practised, lacks an ethical anchor and thus has the propensity to undermine the democratic processes which give it a purpose.

The gatekeeping function of political journalism has never been as important. What has become known as the ‘infodemic’, the spread of spurious and false claims, has shown itself a threat to public health and well-being. Journalism is uniquely placed to reassert its role as arbiter within the information environment. We argue that professional standards must be central to the work of journalism, empowering them to ensure they determine what is news, who are the credible sources and rebalance their attention away from the loudest and most controversial voices to create a more pluralist news environment to inform and educate citizens. The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the problematic nature of disinformation, we argue journalists must protect citizens from being misinformed, from making unwise choices, so protecting the overall health of democracies.

Although it is widely recognised that images play a key role in contentious politics, there remains little research into the spatial factors that shape photojournalist practice during political protests. This paper explores the interactions between photojournalists, police and protesters during public demonstrations, with a specific focus on how space and the (physical) positioning of the former influences their practices. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the literature on the social production of space (Lefebvre, 1967), Tilly’s (2003) the spatial perspective on contentious politics, photography (Azoulay, 2012), and photojournalism, our research questions are addressed through an empirical study of photojournalists active in Greece since 2010. The chapter presents the results of a critical thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Greek photojournalists between 2015 and 2016. These perspectives are explored in this study due to the frequency with which Greek anti-austerity protests have led to violent confrontations between police and protesters. Our findings show that accessibility to protest spaces, the relationships between professional photographers and other actors involved in protests as well as space affordances constitute vital components of the final visual outcomes that are published and ignite political imaginations about such events.

When COVID-19 was found to be present in the UK, it was emerging from three years of political instability led by a government who had just acquired a significant majority on the platform of getting Brexit done. After some initial vacillation on the extent of the threat posed and how to minimise impact on the economy, the UK went into full lockdown with a clear, consistent message largely unchallenged. The lack of preparedness for a pandemic was obvious; however, the systems coped. It was only when it was revealed that the prime minister’s special adviser had broken lockdown rules that cracks in the consensus emerged. The relaxation of lockdown proceeded to be more chaotic, with U-turns on schools and face coverings, but the sense of national purpose and unity remains strong.

This Chapter conducts a thematic content analysis of the 92 daily coronavirus press briefings conducted by the UK government in 2020. It examines these within the context of the early months of the pandemic, the public and media response, and the intrusion of partisan politics, including the development of local, regional and national narratives that challenged the Westminster story. What vision of national leadership was presented? How did the briefings represent national identity? How successful were the government’s attempts to convey consensus, unity and equality? Three distinct phases are identified:\ud \ud 1. 2nd March to 27th March – establishing the lockdown led by Boris Johnson. \ud 2. 27th March to 26thApril – Johnson’s absence with Coronavirus\ud 3. 27th April to date – Johnson’s ‘bounceback’.\ud \ud As astonishing as the government’s volte face, was the extent to which the opposition, public and media rallied round the flag during the first two phases. This did not last, but why? We argue that the answer will help us to identify the essential ingredients of public trust in government and governing politicians.

Alex Marland, Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada, 2020, University of British Columbia Press, $39.95, 459 pages, ISBN: 9780774864961

Featuring 91 contributions from over 115 leading US and international academics, this publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections and early research insights on the 2020 U.S. presidential election from the cutting edge of media and politics research. Published within eleven days of the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis – including research findings and new theoretical insights – to bring readers original ways of understanding the campaign. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary influences, from political science to cultural studies, journalism studies to geography.

This report offers a summary analysis of an investigation in the use of social media as a tool of political communication in Greece by drawing on interviews with politicians and communication consultants. It presents key findings regarding the perceptions about and use of social media, patterns of behavior online, the working relationship between politicians and consultants, and the design of digital communication strategies.

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Social media are claimed to boost the development of populism and the use of populist rhetoric and communication styles by political parties. The technological affordances seem to be a perfect place to communicate using a more informal style, employing emotional arguments that are not always suitable for more traditional campaigning. In this research project we concentrate on posts (3500, random sample) by political parties on their Facebook profiles during 2014 EP election campaign. By applying the coding schema on different standard post features (e.g. topic, target, emotions) as well as populism codes (e.g. xenophobic language, uncivil behavior, attacking elites, popular representation, symbols) we demonstrate to what extent parties employed populist communication styles. We further cross reference our data with the data from the Chapel Hill expert study, European Social Survey to understand to what extent the ideological party positioning is correlated with the communication strategy employed by party.

Protest communication and campaigning plays a crucial role in democracy, and can bring about regime change, yet is treated as of secondary importance to electioneering activities. This paper counters the imbalance by focusing on the #Rezist protests in Romania 2017; triggered by an attempt by government to exonerate senior politicians who had been found guilty of corruption. Young Romanians took control of Victory Square, facing the government building, to demand the law be repealed and European law be respected. In order to counter the government narrative which dominated party supportive media, protesters quickly developed their own media channels to build support. The protests spread across Romania and the diaspora; the younger, entrepreneurial class gained the attention required to bring about short-term changes. Through interviews with some of the key activists and monitoring of developments in the anticorruption campaign we chart the role social media plays in building the e motional mood and sense of solidarity required to meet short term goals. But equally our analysis shows that once short term objectives are attained the c ampaigns that bring together Internet-mediated issue generalists can become fragile. Hence this paper offers a more balanced perspective of Internet-mediated social movements than studies of Castells and others. Our study serves to highlight how protests can emerge through the emotional power of outrage, can mobilise citizens around narrow objectives, and can evolve to become a social movement, but then struggle to then develop a more transformatory socio-political agenda.

With the importance of broadcast and print media, and its prioritisation by parties, as the backdrop, this chapter focuses on the relative importance of the leader debates and interviews, the impartial television news and the partisan print media, and explores the role media played in shaping and translating the marketing strategies of the parties and their leaders into news items for public consumption. The data presented allows us to draw some conclusions as to the relative successes of the various parties’ media management strategies and the impact mainstream media outlets might have on the outcome of election contests irrespective of the sophistication and skill committed to the party’s marketing strategies.

The report captures in its collection of essays and articles written by activists, journalists, academics and protestors, a variety of perspectives of the #rezist 2017 protests: the personnel, the political and media environments, and their impact. In doing so, it raises questions regarding the future, the challenges faced by Romanians seeking greater input into democracy as well as those faced by a government attempting to retain power and legitimacy.

Featuring 92 contributions from over 100 leading UK and international academics, this publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections and early research insights on the 2017 UK General Election from the cutting edge of media and politics research. Published 10 days after the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis of the campaign, including research findings or new theoretical insights; to bring readers original ways of understanding the campaign. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary in uences, from political science to cultural studies, journalism studies to psychology. We hope this makes for a vibrant, informative and engaging read.

Political campaigns are orchestrated attempts by political organizations to garner public support through persuasive communication in order to influence public policy in their favor. This broad definition encapsulates all forms of campaigns from those of neighborhood organizations seeking to influence local politicians to the campaigns of political parties and candidates who seek election to office in order to shape policy themselves. In pluralist democracies, campaigns are crucial for representation. Campaigns are a means by which groups of individuals with a common cause can communicate their stance and enable others with similar concerns to join their campaign; thus, campaigns give voice to those individuals and the supporters of their cause. The majority of academic research has focused on the campaigns orchestrated by those seeking election, in particular political parties or candidates seeking to be elected as national president. Due to the levels of resources, the campaigns run by candidates for the U.S. presidency are the most sophisticated and gain most attention. The campaign environment is more complex, however. This entry explores that complex environment, discusses the evolution of political campaigns to their current professionalized form, and concludes with research around campaign effects.

Featuring 83 contributions from leading academics and emerging scholars across the world, this publication captures the immediate thoughts and early research insights on the 2016 US Presidential Election from the cutting edge of media and politics research. Published 10 days after the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis of the campaign, including research findings or new theoretical insights; to bring readers original ways of understanding the election and its consequences. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary influences, from political science to popular culture, journalism studies to advertising. We hope this makes for a vibrant and engaging read.

Online campaigning is now embedded in most democracies and has evolved to focus on activating and mobilising online followers in order to extend the reach of campaign communication. This article explores the extent of party use of social media platforms in the UK during the 2015 general election, and the extent to which they were able to harness their followers to work for the campaign. The data, drawn from analysis of social media profiles and a survey, finds parties keen to develop shareable content and using all three major social media platforms. The followers largely performed few sporadic interactions, with parties only gaining 1-3% who would be activists that were committed to the campaign. The reasons for this appear to be the failure by parties to enthuse their followers, rather they lag behind NGOs in having active, campaigning communities. Overall the article suggests that the online campaign might play a marginal role in elections, perhaps firming up wavering supporters although there could be evidence that some parties do gain active followers over the course of an election contest.

This paper explores the patterns of political participation offline and online and, using data from an online survey of UK respondents, seeks to determine the extent that internal motivations (personal gratifications), external motivations (self-efficacy) are factors which influence these patterns. Additionally we determine whether communication via social media from political parties, campaign organisations or friends have a mediating influence on motivations. Our data suggests that there remains a divide between the online and offline spheres of participation, there are also divisions over who participates within each sphere, although the demographic variables are diminishing in their explanatory power. Largely internal motivations, relating to personal feelings have the greatest explanatory power, though external motivations are not insignificant in the offline sphere. However encouragements, particularly from campaign organisations, have a strong mediating effect. Encouragements from friends have a lower impact while political parties appear to struggle to mobilize their supporters reflecting a general trend away from engagement in electoral politics.

Most political parties across the democratic sphere have created their own spaces within social media. While ostensibly studies show that social media is being utilized by political parties to further their electoral goals, the uses of their social media profiles by visitors is largely beyond official control without devoting significant resources to moderation. This study will be the first to gather data that allows us to detect patterns of participation within and potentially across nations, but in particular within nations and across parties to determine the extent that visitors use social media to promote parties (through liking and sharing) or for entering comments on party posts or for entering into discussions with other visitors. We specifically seek to understand whether we can detect evidence of a political ecosystem in which visitors visit multiple party profiles, enter debates across differing profiles and so contribute to something that might resemble an informed and engaged public sphere.

Book review

This paper analyses within the context of election contests the extent to which parties use the range of Web 2.0 tools, in particular social networking sites, weblogs and microblogs, in order to build communities online; we contrast this with the more traditional political use of the online environment for broadcasting. Using the 2011 Polish general election as a case study, we analyse the use of the online environment by all political parties, categorising features as offering a range of functions to serve visitors, from informing to allowing interaction. We also assess how different groups of visitors are targeted through different features or platforms. The data from the content analysis thus provides a rich picture of the online strategy of each party and the extent to which the Internet was used in the campaign. These data are supplemented by web cartography analysis which identifies the interlinkages between the websites of political parties, official information sources and the media. The cartography allows us to analyse the direction of traffic flow within the electoral websphere, the extent to which parties create open platforms with high levels of linkage to one another or if they maintain enclosed communities linking only to supportive sites. Overall our paper will provide an understanding of party election strategies during elections allowing discussion regarding the impact this might have on parties, media actors and voters. In particular we demonstrate how parties can use the range of web features to build communities of specific groups of visitors, in particular those with issue specific interests, those leaning towards supporting a party, and existing partisan campaigners. The use of these tools, we argue, can increase loyalty and lead to the conversion of supporters to activists. The paper leads into a discussion of how social networking tools have the potential to enhance the link between parties, members and supporters but that this depends on how the party utilises the online environment. Finally we aim to fit the Polish case study within a larger picture of political parties’ online performance during elections. Here we will compare our data on Poland with similar data which analysed the performance of parties in German 2009 general elections, parliamentary elections in Great Britain 2010 and French parliamentary election in 2012.

The microblogging platform Twitter has gained notoriety for its status as both a communication channel between private individuals and as a public forum monitored by journalists, the public, and the state. Its potential application for political communication has not gone unnoticed; politicians have used Twitter to attract voters, interact with constituencies and advance issue-based campaigns. This article reports findings from the research team's work with 21 peers sitting on the Labour frontbench. The researchers monitored and archived the peers' activity on Twitter for a period of 3 months between June and September 2012. Using a sample of 4,363 tweets and a mixed methodology combining semantic analysis, social network analysis, and quantitative analysis, this article explores the peers' patterns of usage and communication on Twitter. Key findings are that as a tweeting community their behavior is consistent with other communities. However, there is evidence that a coherent strategy is lacking in their coordinated use of the platform. Labour peers tend to work in small, clustered networks of self-interest as opposed to collectively to promote party policy.

Interest in the Internet and its role within political communication and election campaigning has now an established body of theoretical and empirical history, with mixed predictions and findings. The bulk of the empirical research has been in single countries, and where there has been comparative research it has tended to use a range of methodologies conducted by different authors. Largely, empirical studies have agreed with the politics as usual thesis, that political communication online is of a similar if not identical style to offline: top-down, information heavy and designed to persuade rather than consult with voters. The mass take-up of Web 2.0 tools and platforms challenges this approach, however. Internet users now have opportunities to interact with a range of individuals and organisations, and it is argued that such tools reduce societal hierarchies and allow for symmetrical relationships to build. Theoretically democratic politics is a fertile environment for exploring the opportunities potentiated by Web 2.0, in particular the notion of interactivity between the campaign (candidate, party and staff) and their audiences (activists, members, supporters and potential voters). In particular, Web 2.0 conceptually encourages co-production of content.\ud \ud This research focuses on the extent to which interactivity is encouraged through the use of Web 2.0 tools and platforms across a four year period focusing on four discrete national elections; determining take up and the link to national context as well as assessing lesson learning between nations. Using the Gibson and Ward coding scheme, though adapted to include Web 2.0, we operationalise the models of interactivity proposed by McMillan (2002) and Ferber, Foltz and Pugiliese (2007). This methodology allows us to assess whether election campaigns are showing evidence of adopting co-created campaigns based around conversations with visitors to their websites or online presences, or whether websites remain packaged to persuade offering interactivity with site features (hyperlinks, web feeds, search engines) only. Indications are that the French election was largely politics as usual, however the Obama campaign took a clear step towards a more co-produced and interactive model. There may well be a clear Obama effect within the German and UK contests, or parties may adopt the look if not the practice of the US election. This paper will assess the extent to which an interactive model of campaigning is emerging as well as detailing a methodology which can capture and rate the levels and types of interactivity used across the Internet. Whilst specific political cultural and systematic factors will shape the use of Web technologies in each election, we suggest that an era of Web 2.0 is gradually replacing that of Web 1.0. Within this era there is some evidence that campaigners learn from previous elections on how best to utilise the technology.

Several UK Members of Parliament (MPs) have a foothold within a Web 2.0 environment. Some write blogs, such as Labour’s Tom Watson or Conservative John Redwood. Equally, some have joined virtual communities such as the social networking sites (SNS) MySpace or Facebook. Cumulatively this indicates they are exploring new means of promoting themselves, their politics as well as news means for interacting with their constituents or those who share their political interests. The key aspect of Web 2.0 technology that offers potential for MPs is that an architecture of participation is in place where those with Internet access can interact with one another. Apart from the Webmasters, there is no automatic hierarchy within communities and so each page within a community site is produced by its members. In sharp contrast to the ‘we will build it and they will come’ philosophy associated with Web 1.0 and the static website; Web 2.0 users work on a ‘we will come and build it philosophy’. MPs, in using this technology, must relinquish some control over their public representation in order to engage with community members; this papers asks to what extent this is occurring, what functions of an MPs role are enhanced through the use of Web 2.0, and concludes by focusing on the advantages and disadvantages for MPs of pursuing a Web 2.0 strategy. Our research analysed the content of the 42 weblogs and 37 SNS of MPs who advertise these on the personal websites. Our first set of questions related to the extent to which public conversations could take place; so assessing the extent of interactivity between the MPs and the visitors to these weblogs and SNS profiles. Secondly we focused on the extent to which interactivity was potentiated, either through site functions or the language used, such as asking questions; so assessing whether interaction could take place. Thirdly we assessed which of the MPs roles, the policy scrutiny trusteeship role, the party member role, or constituency representative role was being enhanced through Web 2.0 technologies and what relationship this had to interaction gained. Our data suggests that interactivity is taking place. But this can be in a fairly limited form with many visitors being more likely to comment without returning rather than being part of any reciprocal exchange with the MP. In our assessment, this was due to the fact that many blogs and SNS profiles are laden with too much information and insufficient opportunities to enter into conversations on matters of importance to visitors. When focusing on the functions of the MP, it was clear that many used Web 2.0 as a space to promote the party and communicate their thoughts on issues of the day however these tended to gain little interaction. However, those MPs who use Web 2.0 tools to enhance their constituency representative role did find visitors would interact with them. Within Web 2.0 we can also find a further purpose for MPs, offering insights into their background and personal life to offer a more three-dimensional perspective to visitors. Many MPs use SNS particularly in the same way as any other user, as an individual as opposed to as a professional within any particular career. Here we find MPs also benefiting from interaction with visitors and not only those that are within their offline circle of friends and colleagues. Thus we conclude that there is potential for MPs to use Web 2.0 to support their representative function and gain interaction with a broader public than they would normally. Weblogs can be used to build a community of interest around policy areas to some extent, though this is currently limited to a minority. However SNS can be used to enhance the link between constituents and the MP, if only a minority of the constituency, and can widen the MPs circle of contacts. However, the control aspect is clearly a worry for MPs. While outside of an election campaign it may not matter what is said on an MPs’ weblog or SNS profile there are dangers that during an election they can be hi-jacked by opponents. Therefore the calculation will remain one of benefit versus risk and an assessment of whether sufficient constituents can be reached, or significant numbers of contacts be made, to indicate whether Web 2.0 offers huge promise or huge dangers.

The microblogging platform Twitter has gained notoriety for its status as both a communication channel between private individuals and as a public forum monitored by journalists, the public, and the state. Its potential application for political communication has not gone unnoticed; politicians have used Twitter to attract voters, interact with constituencies and advance issue-based campaigns. This article reports findings from the research team's work with 21 peers sitting on the Labour frontbench. The researchers monitored and archived the peers' activity on Twitter for a period of 3 months between June and September 2012. Using a sample of 4,363 tweets and a mixed methodology combining semantic analysis, social network analysis, and quantitative analysis, this article explores the peers' patterns of usage and communication on Twitter. Key findings are that as a tweeting community their behavior is consistent with other communities. However, there is evidence that a coherent strategy is lacking in their coordinated use of the platform. Labour peers tend to work in small, clustered networks of self-interest as opposed to collectively to promote party policy.

The key to success for any campaign is building and maintaining support. The most valuable supporters are active; those who act as activists and advocates. This presentation offers insights into techniques for mobilising supporters by drawing on principles of psychology, consumer behaviour and examples from the field of electoral politics and charity campaigning. Firstly the presentation critiques approaches to understanding activism; these often take a critical view of small actions, such as signing online petitions or subscribing to online groups or newsletters. The critique draws on examples of two contrasting types of campaign, the election campaigns of Barack Obama, the UK Conservative and Labour Parties, and the German SPD and CDU; these political campaigns are compared with the tactics of a charity campaign designed to raise both awareness and money for breast cancer research: the UK based Wear It Pink campaign. Each of the campaigns placed demands upon their most highly involved supporters and sought to achieve both a cascading down and cascading up of activism. Put simply, they encouraged existing supporters to recruit friends to the campaign and, once these newbies were drawn to visiting the campaign website, or associated online presences, were encouraged to deepen their involvement through a range of requests from small to large. We understand low-effort actions as a small step onto a loyalty ladder, but that through tapping into the target audiences’ needs and wants we can increase interest in the party, organisation or campaign. Here we introduce the concept of involvement and how this is crucial for campaigning. Data suggests that the key to increasing emotional involvement is making the basic campaign messages have resonance with supporters’ lifeworlds. Once a rhetorical connection is made, the organisation must design communication that encourages those interested to climb further up the loyalty ladder; a concept which is developed for the context of online campaigning. A key addition is community building; a central feature of the campaigns used as case studies. All the organisations employed tactics designed to establish open channels of communication, personalise as much as possible and build up a relationship between the organisation and other supporters through two-way dialogic networks. The presentation compares the methods that Obama and the Conservatives used to build communities, their methods for asking for donations and campaigning support, with those of UK Labour and the German parties who sought to build a network of advocates and those of Wear It Pink which encourages participation through performance. Each of these different types of request has an equally different psychological impact upon the individual. The perceived goals of supporters’ actions are different as are their feelings of involvement and self-efficacy. Through an analysis of these campaigns, we can understand how organisations can develop theircommunication tactics to convert prospective supporters into passive advocates then, by connecting them to a network, encourage supporters to publicly display their loyalty and further the goals of the campaign.

The professionalisation of political communication is an evolutionary process (Lilleker & Negrine, 2002), a process that adapts to trends in communication in order to better engage and persuade the public. One of the most dramatic developments in communication has been the move towards social communication via the Internet. It is argued to affect every area of public communication, from commercial advertising and public relations to education (Macnamara, 2010). It is no longer sufficient to have an online presence; we are now in an age of i-branding; with the ‘i’ standing for interactive. Yet, trends in online political electoral campaigning over recent years indicate a shallow adoption of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms; limited interactivity; and managed co-production. The Internet is now embedded as a campaigning tool however, largely, the technologies are adapted to the norms of political communication rather than technologies impacting upon internal organizational structures, party relationships to members and supporters, or the content and style of their communication. We examine these themes, and develop them through a focus on the targeting and networking strategies of political parties, in more detail in the context of the Polish parliamentary election of 2011. Through a sophisticated content analysis and coding scheme our paper examines the extent to which parties use features that are designed to inform, engage, mobilise or allow interaction, which audiences they seek to communicate with and how these fit communication strategies. Comparing these findings with maps built from webcrawler analysis we build a picture of the strategies of the parties and the extent to which this links to short and long term political goals. This paper firstly develops our rationale for studying party and candidate use of the Internet during elections within the Polish context. Secondly we develop a conceptual framework which contrasts the politics as usual thesis (Margolis & Resnick, 2000) with arguments surrounding the social shaping of technologies (Lievrouw, 2006) and the impact on organisational adoption of communication technologies and post-Obama trends in Internet usage (Lilleker & Jackson, 2011) and posit that, despite the threats from an interactive strategy (Stromer-Galley, 2000) one would be expected within the context of a networked society (Van Dyjk, 2006). Following an overview of our methodology and innovative analysis strategy, we present our data which focuses on three key elements. Firstly we focus on the extent to which party and candidate websites inform, engage, mobilise or permit interaction (Lilleker et al, 2011). Secondly we assess the extent to which websites attract different visitor groups (Lilleker & Jackson, 2011) and build communities (Lilleker & Koc-Michalska, 2012). Thirdly we assess the reach strategies of the websites using Webcrawler technology which analyses the use of hyperlinks and whether parties lock themselves within cyberghettoes (Sunstein, 2007) or attempt to harness the power of the network (Benkler, 2006).

It is a recognised fact that a key feature of modern post-industrial democracies is that they are also highly marketised, consumer societies. The implications are that citizens face a multitude of highly persuasive messages on a daily basis from a range of commercial, charitable not-for-profit and political organisations. Studies of the effectiveness of advertising and marketing communications suggest an increased sophistication in the decoding of such persuasive communication and note to some extent, and within certain sectors, a shift towards the more subtle tools of public relations using social media and ICT. The consumerisation and sophistication of the marketplace has been a key driving force behind the marketisation of politics. Political marketing is a highly contested definition, in terms of whether it refers to the development of a product (party brand, leader and policies), whether it is the communicational aspects of political behaviour that have become marketised and professionalized, or whether perspectives of marketing can simply used to explain phenomenon such as voter choices or evaluations of parties and their communication. This paper adopts a mixture of all three perspectives and approaches the subject of the decoding of political communication by suggesting that political communication is perceived as part of the clutter of the consumer society. Using data collected during a research project conducted in the weeks following the 2001 and 2005 UK General Elections, we find that there is an increasingly consumerist perspective used to evaluate political messages. Therefore promises made are often judged using a range of values and expectations that fit within our understanding of consumerism; however there are equally a range of values and expectations that are markedly different. Understanding the complexities of the voter-consumer, and the extent to which there is both a conflation and separation of the two spheres of life aids a more detailed understanding of how politics needs to be communicated and what political marketing, as a practice, should endeavour to achieve.

Marketing is traditionally associated with expanding the market for a branded product in order to increase profit; brands undertake research to ensure they possess a thorough understanding of the consumer, their wants and needs. We would all perhaps expect that the brand that is closest to their consumers, most on the pulse of the market, would be expected also to be the most profitable within a competitive marketplace. While a simplification of marketing, this highlights the important irony with political marketing; that while marketing increases in use and sophistication within political campaigning and communication, voter disengagement rises contiguously. Data collected during the 2005 UK General Election, and a long term study within the political parties’ heartlands, allows us to understand the nature and causes of political disengagement, and see why marketing is one root cause. The segmentation of voters, and targeting of those voters who can deliver the greatest profit, a victory in a marginal seat, leaves the majority of the electorate metaphorically out in the cold feeling unrepresented and marginalized. Through a comparison of attitudes within a safe and marginal Labour seat we find the dichotomy between opinions is stark on questions of representation, efficacy of the democratic process and interest in politics. This dichotomy filters through to voting behaviour and attachment to the parties and candidates and will often argue that they will only turn out to vote if they are asked and that support is deserved.