PROPAGANDA AS A MEANS OF PERSUASION BY STUDENT LEADERS: A STUDY OF GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ELECTIONS IN TWO UNIVERSITIES IN GHANA

Andrews Kwakwa Peprah, Albert Agbesi Wornyo

Abstract


This study investigated the use and effect of propaganda as a political communication tool in students’ politics in two institutions in Ghana. The focus of the study was on elections of student leaders at the graduate level at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and University of Education, Winneba (UEW). With Political propaganda theory and Aristotle’s persuasion appeals as the theoretical framework, the manifestoes of candidates who contested the positions of President and Secretary were analysed to unearth the use of propaganda techniques in them. Questionnaires were used to collect data from student voters to determine the influence of propaganda techniques on their voting patterns. The findings revealed that candidates employed the propaganda techniques of name-calling, glittering generalities, transfer, bandwagon and card-stacking in their manifestoes. The desire to win power made student politicians employ these propaganda techniques as political communication tools in the graduate students’ elections in both institutions. Data collected from the student voters in the two institutions also indicated that the propaganda techniques of card-stacking and plain folks influenced some of the student voters but the majority of the student voters were not. The study concluded that although propaganda is used in students’ politics, it may not be very effective as it is in national politics. The study recommended that further studies are needed to detect the presence and effect of propaganda in elections in students’ associations at the national level.

 

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Keywords


elections, manifestoes, persuasion, propaganda, students’ politics

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpss.v6i2.1455

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