A Study Of Hong Kong Social Media Election Advertising Strategy

Cognitive Mobilization theory believes that due to the improvement of education level and the development of mass media,voters will be effected by political information,giving up habitual voting on a political party or faction,and making other judgments and choices.Just as today's technology is changing with each passing day,the era of traditional media agenda setting has become a thing of the past.Now everyone can “speak” through social media,candidates are the The Key Opinion Leader in the election,and their advertising strategies effect the judgment of voters.Based on the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse and related theoretical models,this study explores the specific strategies of the 2018 Hong Kong Legislative Council social media election advertisement through content analysis,and further cross-analysis to make an in-depth comparison study on advertising strategies between the pro-establishment camp and the pro-opposition camp.Based on the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse and related theoretical models,this paper proposes a new analytical model,which deconstructs the content of Hong Kong social media election advertisements through the four aspects: theme strategy,function strategy,appeal strategy and performance strategy.The details as follows: theme strategy includes “issue”,“image”,“mobilization participation”,“election activity” and “life sharing”.Among them,the“issue” is divided into seven categories: politics,economy,people's livelihood,society,environment,culture and election information;“image” is shaped by candidates' background,conduct,work experience,ability and personal characteristic;“mobilization participation ” includes urgent vote,activity notice,call for donation,recruitment of volunteer and online interaction;"election activity" includes the pep rally,forum and street propaganda.Functional strategy includes acclaiming,attacking,defending and non-confrontational functions.The appeal strategy includes rational appeal,emotional appeal and non-appeal strategy.Among them,emotional strategy is divided into positive emotional appeal,negative emotional appeal and positive and negative emotional appeal strategy.The performance strategy specifically includes media presentation strategy and character model strategy.The study found that in terms of the theme strategy,the image advertisement proportion of the pro-establishment camp is higher than that of the pro-opposition camp.The issue and mobilization participation advertisement proportion of the pro-opposition camp is higher.On the specific issue strategy,the pro-establishment camp pays more attention to people's livelihood,economy,society and culture issues.The pro-opposition camp focuses more on politics and election information issues.On the specific image strategy,the pro-opposition camp pays more attention to shaping personal characteristics.On the specific mobilization participation strategy,the pro-establishment camp is better at urgent vote and online activity notice,and the pro-opposition camp is better at offline activity notice.On the specific election activity strategy,the pro-establishment camp pays more attention to the pep rally.In terms of functional strategy,the acclaiming advertisement proportion of the pro-establishment camp is higher,and the attacking advertisement proportion of the pro-opposition camp is higher.In terms of appeal strategy,the pro-establishment camp is more rational,the pro-opposition camp is more emotional,and the pro-establishment camp mainly uses positive and sensible appeal strategies such as“family cards”.The pro-opposition camp is good at using negative emotional appeal strategies such as “sadness cards” and fear appeals.In terms of performance strategy,the video strategy of the pro-establishment camp is relatively high,and the image strategy of the pro-opposition camp is relatively high.The model of relatives and friends and social elites of the pro-establishment camp accounts for a relatively high proportion.