Without hot issues and eye-catching rising stars, it is not surprising that the Legislative Council Election does not attract much public attention. The candidates need to think of different gimmicks to raise the attention of the potential voters. Distributing handbills, shouting with speaker, shaking hands and direct mail are the traditional methods to promote their platforms. The candidates and supporters don’t need to stand on the streets in the hot summer or fold endless envelope now; they have new means.
With the technological advance of Web 2.0, the meanings of community and communication have been redefined among many people (mostly young people though). New electronic communication channels have also provided the candidates new means to access to the voters. Social network tools like Facebook have provided people a direct means to establish their personal network, update their personal diary and more importantly create social groups without having any relationship in reality. With the success of the fundraising campaign of Barack Obama, Facebook has also attracted some older candidates in Hong Kong , who might normally be isolated from new electronic communication tools, to open an account at Facebook. If you have added any candidates as friend, there would be a large influx of information of their campaigns. While the cohesiveness of the members in virtual community is disputable, social network tools did provide the candidates a new channel to engage people.
Besides Facebook, moving or outlook electronic media have also provided other new means for promotion. For instance, when you are riding on an air-conditioned bus around Hong Kong , you are inescapable to hear the platforms of various candidates on the moving media called Roadshow. When you are coming out of Langham Place at Mong Kok or SOGO at Causeway Bay , you would see the big faces of the candidates on the screen of the opposite buildings. When you are browsing the online version of newspaper, the election advertisements are diverting your attention.
New methods of propaganda do not only take place in electronic means, a revolution of print-advertisements can also be observed. Along the moving walkways between Tsim Shan Tsui to Tsim Shan Tsui East MTR stations, there are big-sized print-ads of several New Territories East candidates (yes, it is strategic as many NT Easter voters go home by East Rail). These advertisements do not detail the election platform, but aim at project the images of the candidates to the recipients. One of the ads has only captured the energetic image of a young candidate, coming along with a slogan of “voice of young people” without mentioning other team members.
These new promotion channels have signaled that Hong Kong ’s election engineering has entered a new era. The advertisements have become image-oriented; content of the election platform and ideology are out of the agenda. With the short air-time in moving or outdoor media, candidates must deliver their messages clearly. The impatient voters would not read the platform in details but a clear image of the candidates would be impressive. The example of the print-ads in East Rail has further shown us the importance of appropriate and target-oriented image of the candidates.
The candidates also need to address the new definition of community and new model for engaging voters. In the past, politicians in Hong Kong are obsessive in Taiwan ’s election engineering. They hope to organize large-scale “campaign gathering” but the failure experiences have proved that Hong Kong has a different political culture. When generational change is publicly concerned and there are more young candidates, they might find it difficult to engage and get out the votes from young people, especially when most young people despise in participating “litchi tour”. The emergence of internet community has provided the candidates a new chance to engage those young people who will not voice out any names of politicians in public area. The increasing attention of generational change not only means that new issues and new candidates are coming to the stage, but also new methods to engage voters. The candidates or political parties refusing to engage young people by new methods could not win the campaign.
Lastly, it is also high time for the Government evaluating the guidelines of election advertisement. When moving and outdoor media are having greater coverage than newspaper, TV and radio broadcasting, the Government might need to find the reasons to justify the prohibition of election advertisement on the latter three media.
