| Abstract [eng] |
Researchers argue that people react differently to the same stimulus in political information: some individuals pay attention to one stimulus (e.g. election date, location) in specific political election media, while other groups of individuals pay attention to other stimuli (e.g. description of a candidate's personality) in the same media. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate how different people use different political electoral media (flyers, newspapers, social media advertisements) as sources of electoral information and to provide the types of consumers of political electoral information. The following objectives were set: 1. Construct a theoretical framework; 2. Discover the dimensions of reading political electoral media; 3. Identify the types of consumers of political electoral information; 4. Provide recommendations for practical use of the research results. 20 interviews were conducted, combined with vignette analysis, using Frederic Charles Bartlett's reconstructive memory method. The analysis of the material provided two findings related to the format of political electoral instruments. Three dimensions were also discovered: the dimension of information filtering and passive reception; the dimension of positive and negative attitudes towards politicians' communication; and the dimension of work or personality focus, which led to the identification of three different types of users of political election information. The dimensions discovered led to the identification of three ideal types of consumers of political electoral information. The first type is suspicious sceptics. These are people who have a negative relationship with political communication. This type do not trust politicians and politics, and are radically skeptical about any kind of political electoral communication. They do not believe in change, conducted by newly elected candidates and therefore consider political electoral information a waste of time. They take an active interest in politics, but read and accept only what confirms their beliefs. Their vignette narratives were short, without a clear work or personality focus, and many of them could not remember what they had read. Therefore, this is the type that is most difficult to reach with political electoral material. The second type, the cognitive misers, has its main characteristic a neutral attitude towards politicians' communication, complemented by a passive reception of information and a personality focus. They accept information passively, do not check its credibility, and do not consciously select it according to predefined criteria. Due to the neutral attitude towards political communication and a lack of political knowledge, this group prefers political electoral information that describes the candidate's personality and personality traits. The last type is the diligent analysts. The main characteristic of this type is a positive attitude towards political communication and a focus on work. For this group, a positive assessment of politicians' communication does not imply unjustified sympathy – they consistently analyze political electoral information and in the process discover one or more politicians who meet their expectations. The focus of this group are clear achievements, jobs that politicians have done. Therefore, this type of information consumer can be reached by providing clear, structured and factual information about the work done and planned. In terms of the academic novelty of the work, this study has contributed to the few studies in Lithuania that analyze how individuals read this information rather than the one-way communication of politicians. The discovered typology of information reading will allow to plan political communication not only taking into account the demographic characteristics of the society, but also the reading habits of political electoral information. |
