Communications to Build Political Popularity for a Candidate to the Position of Chairman of Dong Chon Sub-district Administrative Organization, Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the management of communications to build political popularity for a candidate to the position of chairman of Dong Chon Sub-district Administrative Organization, Sakon Nakhon Province, in terms of 1) the communication process; and 2) approaches for improving communication. This was a qualitative research based on in-depth interviews. The 22 key informants were chosen by purposive sampling from among people directly involved with the management of communications to build political popularity for a candidate to the position of chairman of Dong Chon Sub-district Administrative Organization. Data were collected with a semi-structured interview form and were analyzed deductively.

The results showed that 1) the communication process consisted of (a) The message senders, who were credible people and ideological leaders, including the candidate himself, members of the communications team, kumnan and village headmen, community leaders, public health volunteers and religious leaders; (b) the messages were mostly about the candidate’s ideals, background, leadership capabilities, local development plans and management style; (c) the communication channels were a diverse range of mixed media including personal media, print media, signage, websites, and online media including the Dong Chon Sub-district Huggana website, the Dong Chon Sub-district Line group, Line groups of neighborhoods within the sub-district, and Youtube; (d) the message receivers were people who could influence voting behavior, including kumnan, village headmen, community leaders, public health volunteers, religious leaders, journalists and other citizens; (e) the desired results of  communication were that the candidate would have a good image, people would trust him, people would agree with his ideals, concepts, vision, and local development plans, and the target groups would act as a network to support his campaign. 2) Approaches for improving communication are to clearly define the candidate’s desired image as a professional administrator with experience in managing local development, a dedicated and hard-working public servant, and a politician who is focused on solving people’s problems more than attacking opponents; and to clearly define the policies as practical and workable. Also, the messages to be transmitted via a variety of media should be honed to be striking and make a strong impression on the target audience and convince them that the candidate is the kind of administrator they are looking for.