Elif on Referendum and Propaganda

Referendum and propaganda

It?s just the matter of yes or no?

I?m road tripping 100 kilometers per day to go to work and come back home and on the way exposed to  hundreds of referendum posters saying yes or no.

According to political parties, mainly AKP, CHP and MHP, communication with audience referendum is just the matter of yes or no. And AKP?s posters are more frequent because of their higher purchasing power. [BDP?s propaganda should also be looked at but yes, I don?t see their stuff in Istanbul much, E.S]

AKP?s message is yes oriented and on every poster there is a big banner ?yes? and a short sentence talks about prosperity, equality or health which seems to have priority for majority.

Also, AKP takes advantage of the word of ?yes? itself because it has a positive connotation.  However, all other posters of opposition party refer to the ruling party itself but not the clauses they intend to change and the adverse effect of that upon the social and legal processes. Maybe CHP could have initiated a more positive referendum campaign and could have explained which clauses shouldn?t be changed through their posters around whole country.

There is another difference between AKP and CHP?s speeches in the referendum demonstrations. The leader of AKP Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a more propaganda and manipulative way and almost every 5 minutes he make the crowd shout ?yes? to provide the concentration which is similar to American style.

On the other hand, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu?s speeches can be portrayed as more friendly, sincere, egalitarian and continues as a dialogue of small group. He doesn?t expect the audience to participate in the communication actively, so he rarely asks real question which stimulate mass to answer. [E.S: how come it is more friendly if there is no communication?:)]

Despite the differences, both leaders? communication with the audience is one sided, monotone and full of repetition (even though ?repeat? has a significant role in mass communication, this is too much)

If I were one of them, I would have used more interactive channels, like social media, more effectively.

?Pitched battle? strategy has been used hundreds of years to inform public and at the time that trend had emerged, social media and other interactive channels didn?t exist.

More for referendum:

A funny short film of referendum which explains whole story!

Referendum vote percentages ( research)

What will famous people say in referendum?

AKP?s referendum advertisements discussion

ElifJ