Comparing virtual political campaigns with traditional political campaigns: evidence from Kuwait during the COVID-19 pandemic
| Date | 27 January 2023 |
| Pages | 548-563 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-07-2022-0182 |
| Published date | 27 January 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information in society,Information literacy,Library & information services |
| Author | Rashed Alhaimer |
Comparing virtual political
campaigns with traditional
political campaigns: evidence
from Kuwait during the
COVID-19 pandemic
Rashed Alhaimer
Business Department, Arab Open University –Kuwait, Al-Farwaniya, Kuwait
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to focus on how virtual campaigns are affecting voters in the elections of
Kuwait,as well as whethersuch virtual campaigns will replace traditional campaignsin the post-COVID era.
Design/methodology/approach –This qualitativeresearch adopts a purposeful sample when selecting
participants from candidatesand the managers of electoral campaigns in Kuwait. Fifteen participants were
selected, which has been sufficient to achieve data saturation, and then, textual data were collected via
semistructuredinterviews from 15 candidates and the managers of electoral campaignsin Kuwait during the
COVID-19pandemic.
Findings –The findings indicatethat candidates preferred using virtual campaigns which enabled them to
reach voters during the time of COVID-19’s lockdown. Majority of responses underlined that social media
platforms do direct political messages to the voters. Hence, social media platforms should be perceived as
preferred medium for communicating with supporters, especially inthe post-COVID-19 era. However, some
responses uphold the importanceof keeping traditional political campaigns dueto the peculiar nature of the
Kuwaiti communitywhere there is a need for socializationand meeting face-to-face with voters.
Originality/value –This research provides a new evaluationabout the role of virtual political campaigns
in Kuwait. It highlights the crucial and increasing role of virtual political campaigns in attracting voters;
nevertheless, it found that virtual campaigns should be used as addendum to conventional political
campaignsin the post-COVID-19era in Kuwait.
Keywords Virtual campaigns, Political campaigns, Voters, Social media, Kuwait
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the way in which people socialize by turning them
from reliance on face-to-faceinteractions into depending on the cyber world to communicate
(Armitage, 2021;Caballini et al., 2021). One of the expressions in the change in the way of
communication is the activity of political campaigns where traditional ways of direct
interaction between candidates and voters have been shifted to more subtle virtual
communications throughusing social media (Bin-Nashwan and Al-Daihani, 2020;Dehdashti
et al., 2022;McGregor, 2020;Studen and Tiberius, 2020). The incessant reliance on virtual
campaigns, during the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a peculiar situation in which virtual
This research was supported and funded by the research sector, Arab Open University –Kuwait
Branch, under decision number (21071).
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
GKMC
74,1/2
548
Received3 August 2022
Revised28 October 2022
8 December2022
Accepted3 January 2023
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.74 No. 1/2, 2025
pp. 548-563
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-07-2022-0182
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm
political campaignshave moved from being an exception to be the main norm in the election
due to the complete stopping of traditional political campaigns in various countries,
including Kuwait (Abuhashesh et al.,2021;Armitage, 2021;Leban and Voyer, 2020). The
rationale of this study is because this is a comparatively new phenomenon; accordingly,
there are few studies regarding the way various countries, especially Kuwait, focus on
virtual political campaigns (Ahmad, 2020;Bystrom and Mosse, 2020). Hence, gaining
distinctive information regarding the way parliament members, campaign managers,
supporters and advertising practitioners experience this new trend in political campaigns
and its effects on supporters requires further research (Mora-Cantallops et al.,2021;Studen
and Tiberius, 2020). Kuwait is known for abundant campaigns during election season
(Abualrob, 2021;Gavrielides, 2021). The ban on traditional campaigns has forced Kuwaiti
politicians to engage in online campaigns (Jafar, 2021). This situation eventually forced
politicians to focus on social media campaigns to attract supporters (Morazzoni and
Zavettieri, 2020).The news portals, newspapers and other media have informationabout the
virtual campaigns that have taken place in Kuwait, but there is still a lack of scholarly
articles (Anuar, 2020;Baccini et al.,2021;Haridison et al.,2021) about virtual election
campaigns in various contexts like Kuwait, which may significantly impact the
development of this study. To analyze the differences in effectiveness between traditional
and virtual political campaigns, this study, based on studies of Banerjee and Chaudhuri
(2022),Lilleker and Scullion(2009) and Peng and Hackley (2009), suggests perceiving voters
as consumers/receivers of onlineinformation to understand their behavior in the same way
consumers react to advertisements on services and goods on social media.This paper aims
to explore factors that affectthe efficiency of online or virtual political campaigns, as well as
whether virtual political campaigns will be the future post-COVID-19 or traditional
campaigns will be embraced once again. The usability of social media platforms in the
political process during the times of crisis will be underlined which in turn would have
further repercussionson organizing political campaigns in Kuwait.
Literature review
Social media platforms are not only being used for regular communication or business
purposes but also for promoting political ideas and ventures (Bossetta, 2018;Foster, 2008;
Moghavvemi et al.,2015). Political advertising on different social media platforms in
different countries, such as theUSA, has increased since 2012, including local, national and
state elections (Bossetta, 2018). However, though social media has developed into a global
phenomenon, often, it provides only insufficient messages to followers, or it may not reach
everyone (Daly et al., 2019;Loader and Mercea, 2011;Nahon, 2015). In addition, the
researcher identifiedthe issue of increasing pluralization, as well as the fragmentation of the
social media landscape, which may become significantly problematic soon (Celeste et al.,
2022;Crilley and Gillespie,2019;Schäfer and Metag, 2021).
Impact of COVID-19 on political campaigning
The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected the global political sphere (Haridison
et al., 2021). Electionshave faced restrictions due to the sudden growthof contamination and
COVID cases around the world (Bin-Nashwan and Al-Daihani, 2020). Most countries have
restricted political parties from organizing any sort of political campaigns or gatherings to
prevent contamination (Baccini et al.,2021). These restrictions have transformed the
traditional method of campaigningin the direction of online or virtual campaigning, leading
candidates to connect with more consumers (Sullivan, 2020). In Kuwait, during the pre-
COVID era, the candidates generally set up their campaign headquarters to host a series of
Virtual
political
campaigns
549
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