JULY 2023

VOlUME 06 ISSUE 07 JULY 2023
‘Battleground of Philippine Elections’: Political Message Strategies of Bongbong Marcos and Leni Robredo on Social Media
1Rayns Keneth Sabalboro Ampon,2Jessada Salathong
1,2Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v6-i7-32

Google Scholar Download Pdf
ABSTRACT

Social media campaign has been changing the landscape of elections globally. In the 2022 Philippine electoral campaigns; massive number of messages, stories, and political marketing tactics online were used to persuade the electorate. Hence, the recent election has been the most social media-active and engaging campaign in the country’s democratic history. This paper evaluates the political message strategies of the two leading presidential bets, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Leni Robredo, who utilized social media heavily and served as their campaign battleground. Using a Qualitative Content Analysis of their posts and audience contents, selected materials were coded and analyzed. The study found Marcos to appeal to themes revolving around the concerns of the masses like agriculture and basic commodities. In contrast, Robredo appeared to be the more direct in addressing the policy needed to change the system of government to improve the services for everyone. This further argues that social media can persuade the electorate and involve them in co-creating content for them; thus, using an adequate platform for a specific message, either policy or non-policy related, should be planned strategically.

KEYWORDS:

Electoral Campaign, Social Media, Philippine Elections, Qualitative Study, Content Analysis

REFERENCES

1) Ali, D. F. H., & Qazi, A. A. (2020). Can social media platforms enable co-creation as a tool in political marketing? The South Asian context. South Asian Studies, 34(1).

2) Bloomfield, E. F., & Tscholl, G. (2018). Analyzing warrants and worldviews in the rhetoric of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Burke and argumentation in the 2016 presidential election. The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society, 13(2).

3) Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of computer‐mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.

4) Cwalina, W., Falkowski, A., & Newman, B. I. (2015). Political marketing: Theoretical and strategic foundations. Routledge.

5) Denton Jr, R. E. (2017). The 2016 US presidential campaign: political communication and practice. Springer.

6) Henneberg, S. C., Scammell, M., & O'Shaughnessy, N. J. (2009). Political marketing management and theories of democracy. Marketing Theory, 9(2), 165-188.

7) Kemp, S. (2022, February 15). Digital 2022: The Philippines. DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-philippines

8) Muñiz, C., Campos-Domínguez, E., Saldierna, A. R., & Dader, J. L. (2019). Engagement of politicians and citizens in the cyber campaign on Facebook: a comparative analysis between Mexico and Spain. Contemporary social science, 14(1), 102-113.

9) Neema. (2022). Message Framing: The Art of Persuasion. https://www.relevance.com/message-framing-the-art-of- persuasion/

10) Ozturk, R., & Coban, S. (2019). Political marketing, word of mouth communication and voter behaviours interaction. Business and Economics Research Journal, 10(1), 245-258.

11) Pratheepwatanawong, M. (2017). ‘As if it was something spoken by a friend’: Political Public Relations and Digital Vote- canvassing Networks via Facebook during the 2013 Bangkok Gubernatorial Election Campaign (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham).

12) Statista (2022) Social Media Usage in the Philippines. Statista Research Department. https://www.statista.com/topics/6759/social-media-usage-in-the-philippines/#topicOverview

13) Tadic, D. P., Ratkic, H., & Suput, B. (2017). Comparative analysis of marketing communication strategy on social networks: case study of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, 372-380.

14) Tedesco, J. C. (2011). Political Information Efficacy and Internet Effects in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. American Behavioral Scientist, 55(6), 696-713. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764211398089

15) Towner, T. L., & Dulio, D. A. (2012). New media and political marketing in the United States: 2012 and beyond. Journal of Political Marketing, 11(1-2), 95-119.

16) Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Cunha, C. (2013). Web campaigning in the 2009 European Parliament elections: A cross- national comparative analysis. New media & society, 15(1), 128-148.

VOlUME 06 ISSUE 07 JULY 2023

Indexed In

Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar Avatar