Using YouTube in Political Persuasion

Abstract

Political advertising is a form of campaigning that allows candidates to directly convey their message to voters and influence the political debate. South African political parties (African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance) also adopted the use of social media networks as an effective tool for political campaigning purposes and to encourage the public to engage in political discourse. The chapter investigates how both the South African public and the political parties are using YouTube for discussion, debate, and opinion formation during the 2019 South Africa elections. Sociological analysis method is used in the research. The subject is especially about Aristotle's concept of rhetoric, promises of political messages, and political persuasion in written form. The findings part of the study shows that the most prevailant issues in the election campaigns were corruption, failure to keep promises, and the effort to create a new leader identity in the DA party. By ANC, independence, Mandela's contributions and past actions, and the importance of voting were mentioned.