The presidential campaign.
At less than a week from the first round of the presidential elections, we can draw (at least) two important lessons from the campaign in terms of communications.
After the triumphant victory of Barack Obama in 2008, the specialists generally expected the web to play an important role in the campaign. It was not exactly the case.
Admittedly the strong digital development which marked the 2007 elections accelerated in 2012 thanks to the explosion of social networks. May it be for the rallying of citizens during the campaign, to fight against abstention, to test-run projects or continuously analyze public reactions, the internet completely transformed the organization and progress of the campaign. It would be idle to deny it.
However, the marking moments of the campaign did not happen online but on the television.
It is on one hand the TV news channels who, by increasing the number of interviews with candidates, and mostly by broadcasting their meetings, rythmed the campaign and materialized it. This gave all its importance back to the oldest political campaign medium, public meetings! Broadcasting the footage provided by the candidates brings us closer to communications than information.
On the other hand, it is the TV station France 2 with the show “des paroles et des actes” who created the event and gave the opportunity to the candidates, and mainly to the principal ones, to express and explain themselves and to answer to the questions and criticism of the opinion.
The importance that some seem to give to the future debate of the second round of the elections, to the point that some want to see two, can only confirm this simple and clear observation: TV remains the primary medium for presidential elections.