Political gossip and its influence on the electorate was the major subject of discussion at the 4th UniMAC-GIJ inter-faculty lecture.
The lecture was delivered by Dr. Lawrecia Agyepong of the Faculty of Integrated Communication Sciences (FICS).
Inter-faculty lectures have come to remain a major feature of UniMAC-GIJ as they foster a vibrant research culture and atmosphere at the school. The topic for the lecture was “Deadly whispers: Understanding the Role of Gossip in Political Campaigns.”
She explained gossip as being a conversation about someone in which the said person isn’t present.
Positive gossip, she said, is when the said conversation seeks to compliment or commend the person whereas negative gossip tends to harm or denigrate the individual.
“A person’s belief in gossip is dependent on their assertion of the truthfulness or otherwise of the gossip. This assertion is based on the level of trust between the gossiper and the receiver of the gossip,” she stated.
Dr. Lawrencia Agyepong also affirmed that the majority of Ghanaian electorates still vote on party and ethnocentric lines with a little over three percent swing voters.
A situation, she said, makes it rather tricky for political gossip to influence electorates. However, she urged political actors to pay attention to such gossip since they can impact “swing voters” and change the outcome of an election.
“As noted by Agyepong (2017) and Mensah (2009), swing voters account for a significant percentage of the voting population,” she said.
“If we say that swing voters in Ghana make up a significant number, then what will happen if such swing voters are influenced by political gossip,” Dr. Agyepong quizzed, adding that “it is very likely then to influence the outcome of the election results.”
She cited instances such as the famous “Serwaa Bronii saga”, the National Security boss’s “pyjamas photo”, as well as the “Papa no” mantra, which according to her research didn’t do a lot of harm to both parties in the 2020 general elections.
“When it comes to gossip and voting preference, the data obtained so far provides an interesting observation on the issue of gossip’s effect on voting preference,” she stated.
“When it comes to positive gossip the results provide evidence that positive gossip will have a positive impact on voting preference, however, when it comes to negative gossip, less than a third of the respondents indicated that negative gossip will have a negative impact on their voting preference,” the head of the Communications Department added.
According to Dr. Agyepong, the findings affirmed the results from interviews she conducted with some selected groups, media personalities, and politicians which clearly indicate that only a few people’s voting preferences will be affected by political gossip.
Being intrigued by the outcome, Dr. Agyepong studied other research works regarding the voting pattern of Ghanaians over the period.
“The findings indicated that Ghanaians still vote on the party and ethnocentric lines therefore while positive gossip can serve as a reinforcement of their choices of voting preferences, negative gossip will not have the same effect,” Dr. Agyepong noted.
Participants reaction
Precious Dinam Mbataah, a Diploma 1 student of UniMAC-GIJ said, “I really like the topic and I learned that not all what politicians say is the truth but some are gossip.
The media also plays a role in gossip, so we need to be careful of what the media says.”
“That was an interesting topic. I learned that men also gossip as much as women after all because when we hear of gossip everyone thinks it’s a women’s thing. It was a good lecture,” another participant, Patience Akosua, noted.
“It touched on an issue many have not really paid attention to and not much research has been done, so it was quite novel and interesting,” a lecturer at the FICS, Dr. Rosemary Obeng-Hinneh remarked. She also commended the presenter’s engagement with literature.
“Judging from the topic, however, I was personally expecting some real findings which speak to the subject matter as the presenter explained, the study was only in the foundational stage and findings were preliminary,” Dr. Obeng-Hinneh added.
Dean of FICS and Chairman of the Event, Dr. Modestus Fosu, in his closing remarks noted that the presentation “breaks the ground into an emerging area” in Ghana and Africa as a whole. He urged lecturers and students to be interested in the topic in order to understand how gossip affects other areas of the country.
The study of gossipy behaviour has always generated a lot of interest which is indicated by the much literature that abounds. However, there is still very little research on political gossip.
Dr. Agyepong’s paper, therefore, looks at political gossip in Ghana, especially during election periods, and whether political gossip can shape voting preferences during elections in the country.