Would politicians pass my communications classes?

Posted on by Anna Dussing

There are many aspects of the Media Richness Theory and social media in general that can aid politicians running for the 2016 Election. While in this process of promoting themselves and their ideas for election, politicians need to find an effective way of promoting information. According to Information Richness: A New Approach to Managerial Behavior and Organization Design, by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel, there is strategy in communicating with others and organizing that communication, which they discuss in their Media Richness Theory.

Politicians could see the Media Richness Theory beneficial because it discusses how to communicate effectively. In the text Daft and Lengel emphasizes that the more information is processed by the receiver, the more effective and rich the language type is. For example, to give a range they state that face-to-face language is the richest, followed by talking on the phone, written personal letter, written formal documents, and the least rich type of language us Numeric Formal computer output.

After reading and understanding this theory, it is safe for one to conclude that most political candidates should communicate in person, face-to-face, when it comes to communicating with voters or who they will govern. In an ideal world each candidate would be able to talk to each voter one-on-one face-to-face where they can talk about issues that need to be changed. However this would be ridiculous and impossible.

Furthermore I would recommend that they partake in social media communication that would be both relevant to their personality and to their target audience they are trying to reach. I believe that each candidate should view their self promotion as an advertising campaign, while keeping in mind that in the advertising business it is important to be appealing yet extremely truthful. Also in executing campaigns advertisers find a way of researching their target and communicating with them in mediums that they know best and are familiar with. For example to communicate with a younger crowd they should promote themselves in an appropriate way on Twitter.

Donald Trump who has had much experience with self promotion, due to his fame, knows that he needs to appeal to the masses by tweeting his ideas.

 

While reading this theory I still stand by the advice to communicate in person as much as politicians possibly can. That way they can get their ideas and responses across directly and immediately. Plus people will feel the connection and see the truth.

This leaves me with a final thought: I do not think some of today’s politicians would pass college level communications classes if they already have trouble promoting themselves.

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