Election Discourse

Election propaganda consists of texts whose objective is to convince potential voters to cast their votes for a given person or party. These texts are conveyed through diverse channels of communication. Traditional channels include the printed media (advertisements in the press, leaflets, billboards, and stickers) and electronic media (propaganda broadcasts on radio, television, and in movie theaters as well as televised debates between major candidates). In the last decade election propaganda has also penetrated into cyberspace (political party websites, blogs, vlogs, Twitter, social networks such as Facebook, video clips on YouTube, emails, newsletters, and text messages). The channels of communication determine, to a high degree, the topics of the propaganda conveyed therein, the complexity of the message, the style and formality of the texts, and also the para- and extra-linguistic devices to be used. [from the text]