We analyzed the messaging of Senator Clinton's "Sopranos Spoof" home page in a three part arc and now we turn our attention to Governor Romney's campaign site, also as shown on 23 June 07.
We're in the middle of a series of three political web site analyses. We'll close this grouping with a meta-analysis of all the sites. I chose these two simply because that's where the dart landed when I threw it over my shoulder. FYI, NextStage Evolution does not endorse any campaign or candidate. Our interest is purely in how campaigns and candidates communicate to different populations.
First, we're not considering the obvious changes to any site. Political sites change every day as things happen in the world. We're not really interested in the candidates' responses to other candidates, political situations or world events. What this and other columns in this series will focus on is how the designs of these websites influence how visitors to the websites think. In other words, how the politicians want you to think when you're thinking about them.
Governor Romney's site does an excellent job of communicating -- what's called messaging -- that Governor Romney pays attention to others when making decisions, has a strong, positive view of the world, looks to better times in the future and is highly goal oriented.These are all good traits in a leader. But there is an old saying about everything being good in moderation. This is also true when it comes to leaders, how they want you to think and how they get their messages across.
Governor Romney may pay attention to others when making decisions. This is communicated by the use of the familiar "Mitt" as in MittTV, MittWire and "Get to Know Mitt". But to much use of a familiar thing makes something overly familiar and that can be uncomfortable to some. More to the point, over use of this kind of familiarity indicates that while Governor Romney may pay attention to others when making decisions, he also wants to be sure that everyone will remain in agreement with him long after any decision's been made.
(more to follow)
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- How Politicians Want You to Think - Senator Clinton arc
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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