New and smaller parties have to fight hard to raise their profiles with the public. The mainstream media are the gatekeepers, and as we have seen during the local body elections, media can and do choose to only cover the two or three candidates that they think are the main contenders.
In a functioning democracy, one would expect that all candidates, particularly mayoral candidates, should be included in public debates, have write-ups in the local paper and be interviewed on the radio. Sadly this is not always the case.
New Conservative is working hard in preparation for election year to raise their profile in the face of what must feel like media suppression.
One example of how New Conservative received no recognition was the latest TV poll. It mentioned political parties with 1% support but left New Conservative off the list. The result in viewers’ minds is that they will assume that New Conservatives must have been polling below 1% because they were not included on the list.
This is a serious handicap, as the media by deliberately not including them are forming a public perception that they are below 1%
One of the party’s supporters was polled and this is how he said they posed the question.
The list of parties as were seen in the poll result, were quoted, with the question: “Of these parties, which would you vote for if there were an election tomorrow?” He protested and said: “None. I would vote New Conservative.” So his reply would have been allocated to “undecided”. The poll question was designed to not include all the minor parties. Why was New Conservative the small party that they chose to leave off?
How can we trust polls that ask exclusionary questions?
This coming election year The BFD will be the place to go for news and views about all things political. We will publish guest posts and press releases from minor parties as well as from the larger ones. We will run political polls. If a political party is struggling to get their message in front of the public they should make contact with The BFD. We will provide them with a platform in exchange for interesting content, with the bonus for them of being able to interact with our very large community.
The BFD will also publish election advertisements, election videos, and ads for public meetings, etc. Our rates are reasonable so don’t be shy to approach us.
The legacy media used to be the only way to get your message out to voters, but new media like The BFD have a reach that equals and in some cases surpasses the old media’s.
Don’t be left out of the game.