Newspaper and Television Advertising in 2004 Taiwan Presidential Election Christian Schafferer
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Newspaper and Television Advertising in 2004 Taiwan Presidential Election Christian Schafferer Please note: This is a draft only At the end of the 20th century, political marketing appeared to have become a global phenomenon with more and more election campaigns resembling those of the US. Comparative research by Bowler (1992), Farrell (1996), Butler (1992) and others has shown the existence of a so-called ‘Americanization’ of election campaign practices in other democracies. This globalization of campaigning that can be best described as media and money driven has not only affected traditional democracies but also democracies of the Third Wave. The reason behind this worldwide proliferation of US campaigning is partly seen as the result of a modernization process and partly considered as a consequence of a transnational diffusion and implementation of US concepts and strategies of electoral campaigning. Modernization theorists claim that structural changes at the macro-level (changing media, political and social structure) has caused adaptive behavior at the micro level (parties, candidates, and journalists). Supporters of the transnational diffusion theory, however, focus “on the micro-level of entrepreneurial actors, exporting their strategic know-how to foreign contexts by supply- or demand- driven consultancy activities, thus changing and modifying the campaign practice in the respective countries.” (Plasser 2002, p.17). Observations on developments in East Asia suggest that any change in electoral campaigning has had its roots in both the macro and micro level, and its boundaries are set by institutional, legal, and social factors (Schafferer, forthcoming). As to Taiwan, the lifting of martial law in 1987 paved the way for a new era of election campaigning. Liberalization and democratization intensified political competition and with it the way election campaigns were conducted. Traditional forms of campaigning were either replaced or had to share the overall campaign strategy with modern campaign techniques such as the utilization of mass media and mass communication. Liberal election laws—Asia’s most liberal—and an affluent society has led to media and money driven electoral campaigns. 1 Political advertisements in newspapers and on television Taiwan’s first experience with political advertising dates back to 1989, when the election law was revised. Revisions allowed candidates to place political ads in newspapers and magazines, but still prohibited the utilization of radio and television for campaign purposes. Newspaper advertising was first used in political campaigns in the 1989 local and national elections. The first research on political advertising in Taiwan’s elections was conducted by Chen Yi-yan and Chen Shih-min (1992). The two local scholars analyzed the newspaper reports and advertisements of the 1989 elections. Political ads on television were not legal until the 1991 national election, when the election commission released regulations dealing with government funded ads on terrestrial television. Chen Chi-long published extensively on the utilization of television in Taiwan’s election campaigns (1992, 1995). Party-funded ads on terrestrial television are still illegal in parliamentary elections, whereas the presidential election law does not at all restrict political advertising on Taiwan’s mass media. In this paper, advertisements placed in Taiwan’s leading newspapers and aired on Taiwan’s most popular terrestrial and cable television stations are analyzed. It should be noted that only those ads found during the official campaign period of 28 days were included in the study. According to a survey conducted by AC Nielsen, there are four leading newspapers in Taiwan: The China Post (45 percent of the respondents said that they had read this newspaper the day before the interview), United Daily News (33.5 percent), Liberty Times (31.5 percent), and Apple Daily (6.3 percent). The China Post and the United Daily News also have an evening edition, namely the Chinatimes Express and the United Evening News, respectively. These two newspapers were also included in the analysis. Among these newspapers, only the Liberty Times supports the green camp. The ethnic composition of the top management is often quoted as an explanation for this phenomenon: Liberty Times (75 percent Taiwanese), China Post (66 percent mainland Chinese), and United Daily News (80 percent mainland Chinese). A report on Taiwan’s top 50 television stations released by the Government Information Office was used to determine which stations should be included in the analysis. Nine 2 stations were selected according to their viewing rates. They are FTV (min shi), TVBS- N, CTI (zhong tian xinwen tai), SETTV (san li xinwen tai), CTV (zhong shi), FTV-N (min shi xinwen tai), CTS (hua shi), TTV (taishi), and TVBS. Newspapers ads In total, there were 124 different newspaper advertisements. About 30 percent were full- page ads, 65 percent half-page, and less than 5 percent were smaller in size (see Table 1). Supporters of the blue camp placed 56 percent of the ads, the green camp 29 percent, and those neither supporting any of the camps 15 percent. It should be noted here, however, that the overwhelming majority of those individuals and organizations not endorsing a candidate strongly attacked Chen Shui-bian in their ads. There were, thus, only about three out ten ads in support of the DPP candidate. One hundred and twenty-four different ads were found in Taiwan’s leading newspapers during the election campaign period, but the total number of ads accounted for 205, that is to say that some ads were placed more than once in one of the six observed newspapers. Table 3 shows the distribution of these 205 observations by political affiliation and newspaper. Most ads were placed in the Liberty Times (26 percent) and the fewest in the United Evening News (8 percent). Ads in the China Post accounted for 22 percent, those in the United Daily News for 18 percent, and in the Apply Daily for 13 percent. Six out of ten ads were funded by the blue camp (KMT/PFP: 42 percent; other: 18 percent), and almost three out of ten by those supporting Chen Shui-bian (DPP: 21 percent: other: 7 percent). The remaining ads (12 percent) were funded by individuals and organizations supporting neither of the two candidates. Given the fact that the latter predominately attacked Chen Shui-bian, it may be correct to say that 70 percent of the ads did not favor the DPP candidate. As shown in Table 2, the green camp did not advertise in the two newspapers belonging to the United Daily news group except for one half-page ad in the United Evening News. More than half of the pro-Chen advertisements were placed in the Liberty Times, 21 percent in the Apple Daily. 3 The blue camp preferably advertised in the United Daily News (26 percent) and the China Times (26 percent), followed by the Chinatimes Express (14 percent), Liberty Times (13 percent), Apple Daily (11 percent), and the United Evening News (10 percent). The remaining twenty-four ads were quite evenly distributed with the exception of the Apple Daily (4 percent). Most of the ads could, however, be found in the Liberty Times (25 percent), and the Chinatimes Express (25 percent). Newspaper advertisements by the KMT and PFP The election campaign committee of the blue camp designed eighteen different ads to polish up the image of Lien Chan, seventeen to make an appeal to the electorate, and eight to attack incumbent President Chen Shui-bian (Table 3). At the beginning of the campaign period, most ads placed in newspapers were of the latter type. One full-page ad in the United Daily News describes Chen as someone who opposes everything that would benefit the country, such as canceling the “illegal” referenda, increasing the number of reserved parliamentary seats for females to 30 percent, and introducing a professional army. The ad concludes that the electorate should therefore “oppose” Chen. Chen’s Hakka policy was criticized in one full-page ad, in which the blue camp accuses Chen Shui-bian of cheating Taiwan’s Hakka of their rights and creating a racial division in Taiwan. The ad says that Chen Shui-bian’s government only has one ranking official who is Hakka, whereas during Lien Chan’s term as premier there were nine. Three full-page ads mock Chen Shui-bian and his government officials, and describe them as incompetent. One ad reads “the Republic of Wulumuqi,” and shows the faces of several leading DPP government officials and Chen Shui-bian sitting on a throne. Other ads contain abstracts of newspaper articles about rising unemployment, an increase in the number of suicides, and seventy thousand pupils not being able to afford lunch. Lien Chan’s economic expertise was the theme of one ad where he and Nobel laureate Lawrence Klein can be seen. The ad says that Klein has agreed to assist Lien Chan in improving Taiwan’s economy situation. At the end of February, the alliance was surprised when their own opinion polls suggested that more people would turn out in support of Chen Shui-bian’s hand-in-hand rally than originally assumed. Marketing strategies had to be adjusted accordingly and the 4 KMT/PFP put emphasis on the necessity of ethnic harmony among the people of Taiwan in their campaign messages. The alliance asked the people to donate blood on 28 February rather than to take part in the hand-in-hand rally organized by the DPP. Donating blood would symbolize “ethnic harmony,” says one full-page ad entitled “in my blood there is your blood and in your blood there is mine.” After the success of DPP’s rally, the KMT/PFP came up with the idea of staging their own rally. Subsequent newspaper ads exclusively focused on promoting this rally.