Course guide of Design and Analysis of Electoral Campaigns (21211D2)

To possess a medium-high level of English, as most of the basic and complementary reading is written in English, the classes will develop in English, as well as the exam and all written and oral exercises.
Students can make use of a dictionary during the examination.
It is recommended not to begin this course until having passed most subjects of the three first years of the Grade. It is preferably to have coursed the subject "Comunicación política" of the degree of Political Science and of the Administration or the double degree in Political Science and Law.

The growing social and media importance of the political and electoral processes, as well as of the decisions and activities of political parties and institutions make it necessary to draw attention to more specific issues in this area in the undergraduate studies of political science.
In Political Marketing we will learn in a practical and up-to-date way about the different mechanisms, techniques and marketing mechanisms and strategies used by political parties and public and private institutions to design and communicate their image, their messages and campaigns carried out during electoral periods, as well as during their day-to-day activities, in the so-called "permanent campaign".
The Program includes, therefore, the whole process of design and strategic planning, from the organization of the electoral communication to the evaluation of its impact on the public opinion. Special focus will be put on the most innovative issues of modern communication: electoral debates, candidate image building, storytelling, storytelling, public relations, etc.

At the end of the course, students are expected to have acquired the basic conceptual, methodological and instrumental knowledge that will allow them to face autonomously the analysis of electoral campaigns and apply their knowledge to different contexts of democratic societies.

The objective is to provide tools in the fields of analysis and definition of the framework of the political and electoral competition; the definition and selection of electoral objectives; the design and electoral competition; the definition and selection of the electoral objectives; the design of the campaign communication strategies; the definition and selection of the agenda of campaign themes and their transmission; the definition and selection of the campaign agenda and its transmission messages, and the definition of images and the creation of candidate personalities.

1. Electoral campaigns: an introduction
What are the electoral campaigns?
Functions of electoral campaigns in a democracy
The study of electoral campaigns
The effects of electoral campaigns on the voters

2. Segmentation and electoral objectives
Obtaining data to design a campaign: electoral indexes
Electoral segmentation techniques
Electoral strategy and data
Surveys in the media

3. Political strategy

Electoral campaign planning
The design of the campaign: positioning and themes
Electoral strategies

4. Communication, political marketing and electoral campaigns
Media effects
The electoral program as an element of communication: working with the media
The use of social networks

5. Gender, communication styles and political leadership in electoral campaigns
Women and men in electoral campaigns: differences and inequalities from the gender perspective
Electoral campaigns in comparative perspective

The students will have to carry out two types of work, one group work and different individual works (including short exams).
The group work will consist of the simulation of an electoral campaign, for which the students will be organized in different political groups where they will have to design an electoral campaign and present it in class.
Individual work will consist of class debates on different scientific articles proposed by the professor and short ad-hoc exams. Additionally, students will have to organize and participate in a students' conference on electoral campaigns.

The practice classes are expected to be 1/3 of the total of hours of this subject.

Burton, M. J., Miller, W. J., & Shea, D. M. (2015). Campaign Craft. The Strategies, Tactics and Art of Political Campaign Management, 51-91.

Feltus, W.J., Goldstein, K.M y Dallek, M. (2019). Inside Campaigns. SAGE Publications.

Kenksi, K & Hall Jamieson, K. (2017).The Oxford handbook of political communication / [electronic resource]. Oxford University Press.

Kuhar, R. & Paternotte, D. (2018). Anti-Gender Campaigns. Mobilizing against Equality. Rowman &Littlefield.

Peytibi, X. y Gutiérrez- Rubí, A. (2019). Las campañas conectadas : comunicación política en campaña electoral. Editorial UOC.

Rachman, G. (2021). The Age of the Strongman. How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy around the World. Vintage.

Redlawsk, D. P., & Habegger, M. W. (2020). A Citizen’s Guide to the Political Psychology of Voting. Routledge.

Wodak, R. (2021). Gender and the Body Politic: The Politics of Patriarchy. In: Wodak, R. The Politics of Fear. The Shamelss Normalization of far-right discourse. 2nd Edition. Sage.

Yates, Heather E. (2016). The Politics of Emotions, candidates and choice. Palgrave.

Bischof, D. y Senninger, R. (2018). Simple politics for the people? Complexity in campaign messages and political knowledge. European Journal of Political Research, 57(2), 473-495.

Cassese, E. C. (2020). Dehumanization of the opposition in political campaigns. Social Science Quarterly, 101(1), 107-120.

Chester, J. y Montgomery, K. C. (2017). The role of digital marketing in political campaigns. Internet Policy Review, 6(4), 1-20.

Denton Jr, R. E., Trent, J. S. y Friedenberg, R. V. (2019). Political campaign communication: Principles and practices. Rowman & Littlefield.

Duncombe, Constance (2019) The Politics of Twitter: Emotions and the Power of Social Media. International Political Sociology, doi: 10.1093/ips/olz013

García-Marín, J. y Luengo, Ó. G. (2019). Populist Discourse in the 21st Century: the definition of otherness on Twitter in the cases of Spain, Bolivia and Venezuela. In Populist Discourse (pp. 81-100). Routledge.

Kim, Y. M., Hsu, J., Neiman, D., Kou, C.et al. (2018). The stealth media? Groups and targets behind divisive issue campaigns on Facebook. Political Communication, 35(4), 515-541.

López-Meri, A.; Marcos-García, S. & Casero-Ripollés, A. (2017). What do politicians do on Twitter? Functions and communication strategies in the Spanish electoral campaign of 2016. El profesional de la información, 26(5), 795-804.

Rose, J. (2017). Brexit, Trump, and post-truth politics. Public Integrity, 19 (6), https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2017.1285540

Serrano-Contreras, I. J., García-Marín, J. y Luengo, Ó. G. (2020). Measuring online political dialogue: does polarization trigger more deliberation?. Media and Communication, 8(4), 63-72.

Zuiderveen Borgesius, F., Möller, J., Kruikemeier, S.et al (2018). Online political microtargeting: Promises and threats for democracy. Utrecht Law Review, 14(1), 82-96

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

http://www.archivoelectoral.org/

https://www.idea.int/

https://aceproject.org/

https://www.populismstudies.org/

• MD01. Lecture/exhibition 
• MD02. Discussion and debate sessions 
• MD03. Problem solving and case studies 
• MD05. Field practicum 
• MD06. Computer lab practicals 
• MD07. Seminars 
• MD08. Simulation exercises 
• MD09. Analysis of sources and documents 
• MD10. Group work 
• MD11. Individual work 

Class attendance is compulsory and a continuous evaluation system will be followed, where the final grade will be given by:
1. 60% by the score obtained in the group work.
2. 40% by the grades obtained in the individual practices and written exams.
It will be mandatory to attend 80% of the classes in order to follow the continuous evaluation system.

Students' participation in class might increase their grade.

The extraordinary evaluation will consist of a written exam with two clearly differentiated parts that will be scored equally (50-50):
1. Theoretical part, where students will have to answer questions about the teaching material proposed by the professor in the classroom (usually in the form of PPT presentations).
2. Practical part, where students will have to apply the knowledge acquired by reading the proposed scientific articles proposed for discussion by the teacher.

In the cases of a single final evaluation contemplated by the Norms of evaluation and grading of students of the University of Granada (approved in extraordinary session of the of the Governing Council of May 20, 2013), the exam will include the requirements of the extraordinary evaluation, i.e., the completion of a written exam, including both theoretical and practical parts.

Originality of papers and tests:
1- The University of Granada will encourage respect for intellectual property and will convey to students that plagiarism is a practice that is contrary to the principles governing the university education.
To this end, it will proceed to recognize the authorship of the work and its protection in accordance with the intellectual property, as established by the current legislation.
2. Plagiarism, understood as the presentation of a work done by another person as one's own or the copying of texts without citing their origin and giving them as one's own, will automatically entail the numerical grade of zero in the subject, regardless of the rest of the grades that the student would have obtained.
This consequence should be understood without prejudice to the disciplinary responsibilities in which the students who plagiarize may incur.
3. The work and materials handed in by the students must be signed with an explicit statement in which the originality of the work is assumed, understood in the sense that it has not used sources without citing them.

Turnitin platform might be used in order to detect possible cases of plagiariasm.

Design for all: Specific Educational Support Needs (SEN)
Following the recommendations of the CRUE and the Secretariat for Inclusion and Diversity of the UGR, the systems of acquisition and evaluation of competences included in this teaching guide will be applied according to the principle of "design for all", facilitating learning and the demonstration of knowledge according to the needs of each student.

GUIDANCE AND ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS:

UGR Office for Prevention and Response to Harassment (OPRA):
https://www.ugr.es/info/perfiles/estudiantes/atencion-social-igualdad-inclusion-sostenibilidad/igualdad-prevencion-respuesta-acoso

UGR Equality and Conciliation Unit:
https://viis.ugr.es/areas/igualdad-conciliacion

Psychopedagogical Cabinet/Academic Guidance Unit of the UGR:
https://ve.ugr.es/secretariados-y-unidades/orientacion

Student Assistance Service of the UGR:
https://ve.ugr.es/servicios/asistencia-estudiantil/