Expert Interviews With Political Communication Practitioners in Latvia

Abstract

The case study covers the use of expert interviews in the context of the globalization of political campaigning. The method was used to answer research questions about the use of Western and Russian political campaigning techniques in Latvia. Latvia was chosen as a case because it belongs to the West through its European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership, but at the same time, Russia impacts on it relatively highly in terms of historical ties, the presence of the Russian media, the spread of the Russian language, and other factors. Expert sampling included leaders of political parties and political campaigning professionals who represented the entire political spectrum of political parties in Latvia. The design for the qualitative research was chosen to get an initial perspective on an area that has not been previously studied. This is one of the first studies in Latvia aimed at discovering the practice of election campaign management from the viewpoint of political parties. The obtained data provide information on the views of the Latvian political elite on the political campaigning environment in Latvia and may serve as a basis for further research. The main conclusions of the study are that political campaigning in Latvia is rather locally oriented with limited international influence.

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