We analyzed the messaging of Senator Clinton's "Sopranos Spoof" home page in a three part arc and followed that with a three part analysis arc on Governor Romney's 23 June 07 home page. This post starts a three part meta-analysis of all the sites.
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.
NextStage Evolution does not endorse any campaign or candidate. Our interest is purely in how campaigns and candidates communicate to different populations.
I've written previously how Senator Clinton's website has shifted its emphasis from "Get to Know Me" to "Here's How We Can Fix This" (examples of what NextStage recognizes as K9 to V9 messaging) and how Governor Romney's has shifted from "I Know What's Best" to "Let's Talk About What's Best" (V7 to V10 in NextStage parlance), from Feb '07 to 23 June 07.A question I'm often asked is, "Which candidate's the best at getting their message out?". Excellent question, that.
First, you need to appreciate that the United States -- indeed any country with this large a population -- is going to be filled with people who think in many different ways about many different things.
For the purposes of these posts, though, We're not interested in people's opinions on different topics. That's something the politicians are curious about. I'm much more interested in how people think about things. What kinds of facts do people need to make a decision? Do people need facts to make a decision or do most of them go with their gut? Are people more willing to talk or listen, to do or to let someone else do for them, to watch or take part? These kinds of things fascinate me.
(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
- How Politicians Want You to Think - Governor Romney arc
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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