Strategy and Tactics in Campaign
Communication II:
Shaping the Decision
While rhetoricians , democratic theorists, philosophical purists and others
may object to the characterization, for the strategist substantive argumentation
is often tangential and actual content peripheral to the truly essential
decisions regarding the persuasion of individuals. Far more important is an
understanding of why and how such persons of interest to the campaign
hold the attitudes, perceptions, preferences, beliefs, and expectations that
they do, and by what mechanisms these diverse elements can be accessed
and influenced. From a purely strategic standpoint, if one understands the
psychological dynamics that generate and maintain these states and that
govern their projection into the campaign setting, one can then shape
the content of campaign communications to exploit these tendencies.
Argumentation and content, then, are often best understood not as the
essence of persuasion, but rather as the pre-screened and carefully structured
packaging that draws targeted individuals to engage with the
campaign so that more fundamental persuasive elements, intended to take
advantage of underlying psychological structures and processes, can be
conveyed effectively