Framing political policy communications in Africa

The political environment is increasingly becoming complex with punitive political consumers. Thus, political elites need to constantly review their strategies to stay relevant and garner continuous support for re-election (Lees-Marshment 2019). While varied factors explain voter choices in contemporary politics, the infuence of policy positions on voter choice cannot be underestimated (Scammell 2015). Consequently, policy communication has become a crucial area of political marketing. Traditional frames of political communication get transformed to meet the changing demands of the political market. Political communication has changed how to convey a message to resonate with the fragmented target audience who no longer embrace passive communication. Political Communication is critical for winning elections because it potentially alters the attitudes of political consumers (Mensah 2016; 2017). A new media has provided greater interactivity between political elites and political consumers, thereby infuencing political practices in developing democracies like those in Africa. Innovative policy dialog, delivery of progress reports on policies and accountability to the citizenry that has come with these new platforms subtly infuence the nature and be-haviour of politics in Africa.

Other Information

Published in: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840-15