Issue № 46. Oсtober 2014

The Language of Political Advertising: Appealing to the Youth

Ph.D., Associate Professor, Institute of Economics, Management and Social Technologies, A.N. Tupolev Kazan National Research Technical University (KAI), Kazan, Russian Federation.
E-mail: sg@riastatus.ru

The subject of the article is the language of various political forces addressing the youth audience. Attention is drawn to one of the most effective channels of ideological influence — the social networks. Information received from social network “friends” often has a sufficiently high degree of confidence to today’s youth.

The author suggests, based on the analysis of political advertising, placed in the Internet on the eve of the 2012 elections, and a focus-group study among students conducted by the author, that young people often makes political choice based not on the general ideological preferences of this or that political force, but on the sympathy for the political leader. In 2012 Internet played a great role in the formation of the image of political leaders among the youth.

One of the peculiarities of the perception of young people — the higher role of symbols. Political videos of the 2012 elections reflect some important trends of development of modern communication space associated with the youth audience: the growing importance of visual component of communication, epatage, humor as the most effective method of influence.

To find a common language, containing both verbal constructions and non-verbal symbols that reflect the values peculiar to the Russian youth is the most important political task that no political force was able to accomplish completely.

Keywords

Language policy, youth in politics, political campaign.