Communications Go Surfacing

Communications is involved in EVERY stage of a political campaign. It is how candidates, voters and the media become involved in the campaign process.

The first political campaign stage is surfacing. Communication throughout this stage is crucial. Candidates have to speak to multiple publics, build political organizations, and fundraise to keep their campaign going all with the help of communicating. There are two communication functions, caliber and politcal rituals, that help indicate whether a candidate is a good choice for office.

There are five instrumental functions in the surfacing stage. The first is learning about the goals and political programs of a candidate. They also would speak about their intitial stance stance on a major issue. Communication is vital due to the fact that voters and whoever else would have no idea about that candidate. This instrumental function relates to the second with communicating. The second deals with developing voter expectations, both personally and administratively, and without learning about that candidate through communication the people would have no idea who to side with.

Communication is highly important in the development of determining main campaign issues, the third instrumental function. Main issue start and evolve all throughout cities, states, and the nation and without communication, those issues would not be well known or focused upon. It takes a whole country to communicate to have the candidates focus on issues, which is how they also recieve their fan base.

Selecting serious contenders, the fourth instrumental function, would not be possible without communication. Selecting serious contenders heavily relies on the media, which is the largest form of communication in the nation. The media determins how each candidate is viewed and broadcasts it through news, television, or the internet. These are all forms of communication. This also ties in with the fifth and final instrumental function, establishing candidate-media relationships. A relationship in itself relies on communication, without it the relationship would fail. The relationship between media and candidates is vital in larger races. Without that bond of communication between the two, the candidate would most likely not recieve attention and would fail in the campaign. The media would also lose attention from viewers and would fall behind in ratings. With the relationship between candidates and media AND the nation of people watchhing, communications proves to be a vital function in political campaigns.