— Musings —06.20.2016 03:29 PM
It wasn’t the medium, per McLuhan, it was the message
Doesn’t anyone get that? No? Here, take a quiz:
[polldaddy poll=9450826]
It isn’t whether your paid is online or on TV or on whatever, boys and girls. It’s what you say, and how you say it.
Duh.
An unprecedented number of younger voters actually voted.
Their domain is online.
The Harper administration never understood digital and treated it like another medium. It was their undoing. Their key media were TV and print. Anyone remember the disastrous Sun campaign where they risked criminal prosecution in order to shotgun their insipid message to the last few folks who still buy newspapers?
So yeah, we’ll have to disagree sir because it was the medium and not the message that won the election.
I’d say all of them were great.
If the Conservatives didn’t decide to go full blown xenophobic during the campaign, they might not have encouraged as many voters to vote against them as they actually did.
If the NDP didn’t decide to plan/execute one of the worst election strategies in federal history, the might have divided the vote further — and had Mulcair not failed miserably on the campaign trail, he might not have taken his part back to a third place rump.
If the Liberals didn’t decide to campaign in complete contrast to the Conservatives, they might not have secured that anti-Harper vote. If Trudeau didn’t have 100 times the stamina than both Mulcair and Harper as he did, he might not have made it through such a gruelling campaign.
All in all, Liberals ran one of the best campaigns I have ever seen and with a leader who knocked it out of the park at the debates. Mulcair and his NDP floundered epically, which was entertaining to watch. The Conservatives were finished long time ago and had to possibilities: either lose government like they did, or win a minority that would have been toppled immediately by the Liberals and NDP in some sort of agreement government. Smart Conservatives foresaw this and got the hell out in advance; Harper decided to truck on and ended up taking taking his party down with him resulting in his worst nightmare coming true — another PM Trudeau.
I am still flabbergasted when I think back to the promise of a Barbaric Cultural Practices snitchline. Such insane shark-jumping, I can’t believe no one said “uh, no, this is a bad idea that will backfire.”
Isn’t it both the medium and the message? I agree the Conservatives weren’t in tune with switch hitters in the last election, and the Liberals hit the right note. But what good does it do to have a great message if you’re broadcasting it on dead waves? I don’t think you can ignore the influx of voters closer to puberty than retirement that swayed the vote in favour of the eventual winner, and the fact that they got info and motivation in the places and media where they spend their leisure time.