Trans. by B.DULGUUN
Recently, an interesting postdoctoral study themed “The Influence of the Media and Interpersonal Communication on Mongolian Voters’ Behavior” was conducted by Ph.D. in political science Ts.Munkhtsetseg, who currently works as the Head of the Social Studies Faculty of the Mongolian State University of Education. The following is an interview with Ph.D. Ts.Munkhtsetseg about the study.
What have you discovered while studying the influence of the media and interpersonal communication on Mongolian voters’ behavior?
Voters attain information through two sources – media outlets and interpersonal communication. By interpersonal communication, I mean the exchange of information between friends, families, neighbors and colleagues.
Western countries have conducted various studies to learn which of these two information sources is more influential, but this type of study hasn’t been conducted in Mongolia in the past. I studied this topic in depth while working at Ohio University in the USA as a visiting researcher in 2013. The research work was recently published in English.
If we look at the study result, the behavior of Mongolian voters can be divided into three main groups: behavior of city voters, behavior of new city voters, and behavior of voters that reside in provincial areas.
It was observed that media, including television, newspaper and internet, strongly influence voters in cities and settlements, whereas television and interpersonal communication or word-of-mouth communication influences strongly on voters living in rural settlements, particularly in soums.
It was determined that spreading word of mouth, rumors and hearsay using famous figures of the region, such as poets, traditional Mongolian wrestlers and race horse trainers, is much more effective than campaign slogans and advertising.
Residents of which district or province are easier to persuade through rumor?
It’s impossible to define characteristics of each province as the survey was compiled from studying a certain area in the capital and another area in a rural settlement during the 2012 parliamentary election. Still, I observed that the more remote a place is from soum centers and cities, the more its people are influenced by rumors.
In addition, the fact that people have been moving to Ulaanbaatar continuously for the last 20 years created the existence of a new, independent group of voters. People who moved to the capital from western provinces have mainly centralized in the western district of Ulaanbaatar, Songinokhairkhan, whereas those from eastern provinces became more concentrated in eastern districts, namely in Bayanzurkh, Baganuur and Nalaikh.
These people differ from native city residents living in central districts by their tendency to pay a lot of attention on the talks of their hometown people and becoming greatly influenced by word of mouth and messages sent from significant figures of their hometown.
Is the use of rumors as a key tool of election campaigns rare in other countries?
I intentionally read comparative studies of the psychology of voters in five different European countries before doing this study. I learned that interpersonal communication is more influential on the behavior of voters than media outlets in Mediterranean Europe, including Italy and Spain.
For example, Italy is a nation that has preserved its traditional culture to do things with their family, and so, Italians are very family-oriented and faithful to their traditions. They are considered to be highly influenced by their parents, siblings and relatives.
As for societies with postmodern culture that value individuality, such as England and France, the role of media outlets is higher.
Considering this, it’s no wonder that rumors, gossip and chitchat, especially those about parents of candidates, strongly impact on Mongolian voters who’ve been raised in a society where influence from elders and relatives is high and people are respected by their bloodline.
Are Mongolian election campaigns of political parties designed with voters’ psychology in mind?
When studying Mongolian political parties’ election campaigns, I found that they use methods that used to be practiced worldwide from 1970s to 1980s and have now become outdated. In other words, they use the traditional campaign style. The USA and Europe, on the other hand, have started using postmodern styles and use new advanced technologies.
Mongolia’s election campaign is based on conventional factors, namely the concept of honoring the state, religion, nationalism, tendency to prefer one’s own homeland and blood ties. Therefore, candidates will probably keep wearing a deel and the campaign leaflets will have pictures of mountains and rivers during this year’s election too.
Political parties started employing poets to spread campaign slogans, banners and gossips based on the public psychology. For instance, candidates will most likely not be able to “race” in Dundgovi and Tuv Provinces if they don’t have advertisement, songs or poems about horses.
An observer described Mongolia’s election period as a comical yet tragic scene where candidates act as if they are some great heroes doing their best for the sake of the public even if it means distributing cash and items while violating the law, and that voters believe that they are returning their kindness by voting for them. What do you think about this?
It’s a good question. Election is just a bunch of expectations. People keep alert on whether candidates will give them money. They want to at least get a certificate. They will not accept a candidate if he or she doesn’t give them something.
N.Davaa from Anod Bank was nominated from Khan-Uul District in 2012. He was listed in seventh place in the first poll. Soon after, he leaped to third place. What happened was that his reputation suddenly increased after he distributed alcohol.
Isn’t there a notion that a man with money will hand out things but if he is elected as a member of Parliament or minister, he will not steal from state funds?
The fact that a person’s hunger for power and greed is never satisfied is almost like their nature, rather than it being a simple shortcoming. The law alone can curb and restrain an official. Whether they have truthfully reported on their income and assets is what’s important.
Even people who believe in the best of people should know that rich and wealthy people embezzle money. Voters only need to trust the democracy and law. In other words, the essence of democracy isn’t believing in the good of individuals, but to trust in the stability of the system.
How would you describe personalities of Mongolians in few words?
Simple-minded and negligent. At a glance, Mongolians look like they are reliable, composed and unsusceptible. But in reality, they take action on an impulse and do things irrationally. They take action blindly because they don’t plan ahead of time and don’t do things on time. Mongolians’ attitude is carefree and negligent. Voters should be responsible. They cannot be negligent and simple-minded.
The presidential election of 2013 was very competitive. Which element of political campaigns made it so competitive?
It became a very unique election with strong internet promotions. Photos and images comparing body builds of candidates were widely spread via internet. While the Mongolian People’s Party’s B.Bat-Erdene was still wrestling, Democratic Party’s Ts.Elbegdorj had already become a member of Parliament. These types of comparisons became public knowledge and city voters were particularly influenced by them.
To be honest, I never thought that B.Bat-Erdene would become such a tough opponent to Ts.Elbegdorj. Ts.Elbegdorj won the election by a small margin of votes from three areas.
Lately, Mongolian politicians keep saying that they are doing PR. How are PRs and election campaigns conducted in western countries? How are Mongolian political parties doing in this field?
Mongolian parties and politicians understand advertisement as PR. The shortest way of explaining political PR would be that it’s a multi-sided activity of companies, political parties or candidates aimed to create positive expectations and endorsements.
Although parties tried to use professional PR services during the 2012 elections, Mongolia didn’t have many personnel specialized in this field. It could be said that people working in the field were amateur and not at professional level. Surveys on how parties should interact with voters, PR and comprehensive communication services are necessary for developing a substantial election platform. These factors benefit social development as well.
The parliamentary election will take place in four months, but results of preliminary surveys haven’t been released. In general, how should readers treat political party rating polls that have been made public?
The USA and European countries weekly update their polls before elections and many independent centers take polls from the public. Media organizations set high criteria when publicizing survey results so that readers don’t get misled. They have to verify who ordered the survey, who executed the task, how many people took part, and probability of survey error.
The Law on Election of Mongolia has no regulation on the publication of polls aside from the prohibition of public polls and surveys a week before the voting. This enable the opportunity to misrepresent and spread inaccurate results through the media. Media outlets need to pay special attention and be strict on this issue. It’s important to verify who had the survey done, where, when and how many people were surveyed by which method before being made public.
The revised Election Law specifies the length of campaigns and limits the amount of campaign material to be released to the public via media. Some people believe that these new articles restrict the rights of voters rather than candidates’ rights. What’s your view on these articles?
Looking at last few elections, the attendance of voters has consistently declined by six to seven percent. Even western researchers were shocked by the revised version of the law.
In addition, there was a provision in the revised version of the Election Law that states that a candidate can suspend operation of any media outlet for six months without any involvement of the court through a complaint of defamation. Personally, I consider this provision to be a violation of press freedom.
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