Propaganda in Politics: The Use of Language and Election Outcomes in Ghana

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

Propaganda according to Bruce Lannes Smith is the dissemination of information, facts, arguments, rumors, half-truths, or lies to influence public opinions There are many techniques commonly used in spreading of propaganda namely; bandwagons (this is the idea that everyone is doing this or everyone should support a particular cause, so they take up that case and run with it), testimonials (this is the celebrity endorsement of a movement or candidate), plain folks ( this is where the candidate or the cause is identified with common people , this idea is to make the candidate come off as grassroots), transfer (this employs the use of symbols, quotes or the image of famous people to convey a message a message not necessarily associated with them), fear (this is the idea to present dreaded circumstances and usually follow it up with the kind of behavior needed to avoid that events), logical fallacies (this is applying logic to draw a conclusion from one or more established premises, the premise might be accurate but the conclusion is not), glittering generalities (this is where a generally accepted virtue is usually employed to stire up favorable emotions There are many techniques commonly used in spreading of propaganda namely; bandwagons, testimonials plain folks, transfer, fear, logical fallacies, glittering generalities and name calling.) and name calling( this is associating a person or a cause to a largely perceived negative image).

According to Traugott and Pratt (480:226) political messages.is governed by a wide range of contextual factors, including social and physical circumstances, identities, abilities and beliefs of participants and relations holding between participants. Symbols as way of communication attracts the eye, soul and character of the public who have the same identity with the politician. According to Heller 1992; Lim: 2008, politicians using linguistic devices as a political tool to employ colloquial prose or ethnic terms to create the impression that they are similar to voters.

Propaganda as skill in political life is used in most or all academic fields, depending on how it is assembled to achieve one’s goal. According to Ross (2002), the term propaganda was coined by Gregory X around 1622 to further the propagation of Catholicism after the rise of Protestantism and from 1790’s forward the term gained more attraction for its secular activities O’Shaughnessy: 2004 argues that, the art of propaganda lies in changing the perspectives and to change perspectives, we have to alter interpretation, to interpret the emotion – arousing situation in a different way so people reassess its significance In Latin, propaganda means to propagate or to sow. . However, Taylor wrote that propaganda essentially is no more than the communication of ideas designed to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way (Taylor, 2013). It is designed to persuade targeted audiences andor whole populations to view particular objects, events, or processes with a positive, negative, or neutral connotation. Propaganda is not a new scheme to say in the least. Lasswell et al., (1979) points to ancient Mesopotamia around the year 2500 B.C. where there is evidence of propaganda in writings of the Sumerians and the Babylonians. Propaganda underwent massive evolution since that time. Current war propaganda is built on the foundations of that produced in WWII. Propaganda has always been common in political context, particularly referring to the interests of governments. In 1927, an American political scientist, Harold D. Lasswell, published a famous book, Propaganda Technique in the World War, a great description and analysis of the mass propaganda campaigns conducted by all the main players in World War I.

Election predominantly remain a key criterion in the practice of democracy in most advanced countries and the process in achieving democracy of most developing countries. Elections is believed to emphasize two elements of democracy ‘participation and competition. Even though elections, is not an end in its self, it continually remains a means to an end because it provides the major outline for democracies to thrive (Gyekye-Jandoh, 2014, Bratton 1999). O’Neil (2007) as cited in Gyekye-Jandoh (2010) further explains that, elections ensure democratic peace and limits the likelihood of a democratic backwardness, and provide the platform for the public to participate in the selection of their leaders. Finally, elections establishes a link between the government and the public as well as facilitates resource distribution (Ayee 2008; Chazan 1987; Gyekye-Jandoh (2014) & Hayward 1987:16-17).

Democratic elections has been consecutively accomplished in Ghana from 1992-2020 which resulted in the peaceful transfers of power in what Huntington (1991) describes as the ‘turn over test’ between the outstanding political parties (in 2000&2008) as well as continuously thriving to improve the performance of its formal institutions, namely the Electoral Commission (EC), the judiciary especially in the landmark case of the 2012 presidential election petition and the security forces. Ghana achieved its third phase in power in 2016 when the Incumbent NDC handed over power to Nana Akuffo leading NPP to form a new government to govern the nation. The outcome of the 2012 parliamentary and presidential elections leading to the judicial verdict, according to schools of thought was hailed by stakeholders, the national and international media and diplomatic missions as a step in consolidating multi’ party democracy in Ghana and as a model for the whole of Africa. These commendations from international observers according to some schools of thought were largely applicable to the core institution of modern liberal democracy system.

Problem Statement

It has been observed that previous researches addressed political propaganda in the light of media, ethnicity, religion, political predisposition and so on. Yet the role of the use of rhetoric plays a major factor in persuading and educating the electorates during electioneering campaigns. It has also been observed that much has not been done on the effects of spreading false information about an opponent or a course during campaigns in the build up to an election has on the electorates. With this in mind, this study seeks to find out the use of words and its effects of false information during election period. Focusing on the general outcome of the elections in Ghana considering Ghanaian elections from 1992 to 2016.

Objectives of study

Generally, this seeks to find out the relationship between propaganda and election outcomes in Ghana. The specific objectives are;

To find out the relationship between propaganda and election outcomes.
To identify the various forms of propaganda in the Ghanaian setting.
To identify the role of propaganda in electioneering campaigns.

Research Questions

What is the relationship between propaganda and election outcome?
What are the forms of propaganda that are normally used in the Ghanaian setting?
What are the roles of propaganda in electioneering campaign?

Significance Of Study

The importance of the study gives rise to the ultimate attitude or behavior realized in the voting system of Ghana. The voting system explains how individuals exercise their franchise based on the influence from propagandists using conventionalized significant symbols, the clinched fist, the sharp voice, the pungent phrase employed in campaigns influencing the psyche of the audience in attaining ‘collective attitude’. This is known as the theory of political propaganda.

The study will give an insight to political propaganda among students with the aim of understanding why significant symbols used during election period affect the voting outcome of particular areas and others not.

Political propaganda has been looked at by many scholars based on many factors – media, religion,ethnicity etc. The study will examine the the use of play of words in influencing voting outcome, thereby, the study giving insights to political scientists that, rhetoric is a critical factor in influencing the public towards political expediency.

Scope And Limitation Of Study

Scope Of Study

This research will dwell in the use of language and speech act. The study will focus on the language use from the communication point of view and the effect it intend to have on the electorates viewing it from the nine perspectives of propaganda. It seeks to reveal the effects propaganda has on election results in Ghana from the 1992 election to that of 2016 focusing on the three swing regions in Ghana that is the Western, central and the Greater Accra regions.

Limitation Of Study

The greatest limitation in this study is going to be the access to ready and reliable information needed to complete this work, given that much has not been done on this particular field and also the ones done are not easily accessible its going to a problem we will have to deal with.

Definition Of Terms.

Propaganda – Lasswell (1966:267) defines propaganda ‘as attempt to influence attitudes of large numbers of people on controversial issues of relevance to a group. As cited by Berelson and Janowitz (1966: 361), Holt and Van de Veld (1960) identify propaganda as ’the attempt to influence behavior: by affecting through the use of mass media of communication, the manner in which a mass audience perceives and ascribes meaning to the material world.’ Thus, political propaganda could be described as a way of managing public information with the purpose of controlling power.

Campaign – The institutional definition of the campaign suggests that campaigns are like election dates either they exist or they do not. But the move toward intensity suggests that campaigns can be graduated from those that barely exist to those that consume voters, parties, and the media. Scholars of Senate elections in particular have incorporated gradations of intensity. (Kahn and Kenney 1999a; Westlye 1983, 1991)

Election – a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

Election outcomes – this is also referred to as election results. In this study, it refers to the level of participation in the electoral contest. Election outcomes paves way to analyse which political party won the presidential or parliamentary election. It is mostly accumulated in regions. These results spells out the number of participants who voted out of the total number of electorates in the state.

Organization Of Study

This research work is in five chapters namely chapter one which contains an introduction, background of study, problem statement, research questions, objectives, the significance of the study, scope limitation of study, definition of terms, organization of the study. In chapter two, the literature is reviewed, chapter three contains the methodological procedures in collecting data for the study. Data representation and findings and discussion of the findings is in chapter four and chapter five entails a conclusion, recommendations, and suggestions for further studies.

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