Introduction

A theory is something that offers different explanations of phenomenons around the

world. It explains what something is, why it is like that. It is a human construction that
explains ideas, different viewpoints that seeks to help us understand something. This
essay seeks to elaborate the premises of the 3 theories, Communication privacy
management, Social exchange theory, and uses and gratification theory. It will look
that which theory is more suitable to be used by a political party, by providing
evidence to sustain the claim. ( Wood JT: 2003)It will offer a critique of the selected
theory that a political party has successfully applied, while weighing its strengths and
weaknesses. The information in the essay will be gathered using different
educational manuals, books and slides.

Communication privacy management theory was developed by Sandra Petronio, she

developed five core principles that help us understand how individuals handle
privacy concerns in their relationships (Griffin, E :2012). It explains how individuals
maintain their private information, who they share it with and the boundaries they put
in place to protect their private information. The key concepts in CPM is ownership
and control of private information, rules for concealing and revealing, disclosure
creates a confidant, coordinating mutual privacy boundaries and lastly boundary
turbulence. Privacy rules govern the management of private information. Boundary
coordination talks about the rules set by the owner and co-owner about their private
information. Boundary turbulence talks about the disconnection that occurs when
boundaries are breached between the owner of the information and the co-owner,
which leads to conflict and trust being broken.

The social exchange theory that was developed by George Homans and Peter Blau
suggest that interpersonal relationships between individuals are based on the
economic rewards gained from maintaining that relationship (West and Tuner :2009).
Individuals weigh the cost of being in a relationship with someone against the
rewards of that relationship. Costs being the negative elements of the relationship,
such as what will it or how much effort is required to maintain the relationship, while
the rewards speak to what the person stands to gain from maintaining the
relationship. Which are the positive or advantages of the relationship. The theory
suggests that individuals weigh the relationships against these costs and rewards
before deciding if it is worth the time and energy.

The uses and gratification theory talks about the reasons why humans use media, in
the way that they do and how it has an impact in their daily lives. It also suggests
that individuals use media to fulfill certain needs, hence why individuals choose
different forms of media (West and Tuner: 2009). The chosen media fulfills a certain
need in their lives. The key concepts in the uses and gratification theory makes two
arguments that individuals are active participants and not passive recipients of
media, it also argues that people use media to fulfill needs such as diversion,
personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

The most suitable theory that can be used to analyze political campaigns is the
Social exchange theory. The social exchange theory allows us to look at how
individuals maintain relationships based on the economic benefits of maintaining that
particular relationship. (West and Tuner: 2009)In this scenario we can say that the
relationship between political parties and their supporters, or voters is based on the
cost and reward gained from supporting the political party, hence the social
exchange theory is the most suitable theory to a lager extent.

The key concepts in the social exchange theory speak about 1. Cost and rewards.
The relationship between political parties and their supporters is based on the
worth=rewards-costs, members of the political party, voters, party candidates
become part of that political party based on what they get in return from supporting
the political party. 2. Relationships need to be maintained the social exchange
theory also emphasis that in order for the relationships that are being built to survive,
they need to be maintained.(West and Tuner:2009)Effort needs to be put from both
sides.

In this case political parties need to ensure that they keep their members, voters
happy by ensuring that they fulfill the promises they made, during their political
campaigns and in return voters also keep their promise by voting for that political
party during elections. (Wood TJ:2004)3. Social exchange talks about the
importance of decision making in relationships. In the context of political parties, they
launch campaigns aimed at appealing to voters, then voters make the decision on
which political party to vote for, based on shared interests, the rewards gained from
voting for that political party, such as jobs, housing and health care. The social
exchange theory allows us to look at how voters make the decision to vote based on
appeal and the cost and rewards it will need or take in order for the relationship to
succeed.

A campaign that successfully applied elements of the social exchange theory will be
the EFF national campaign for the 2024 national elections. The EFF was successful
in applying the 1. Worth=cost-rewards (West and Tuner: 2009), the Economic
Freedom Fighters were able to voters delayed rewards, by promising them that they
would change the health care system that is deteriorating, increase social grants
according to qualifications each person has obtained. (They were able to promise
voters that they would stop load shedding and create more jobs for the people.
When it came to decision making, the EFF was able to reach the hearts of the voters
by targeting and appealing to the youth, by addressing a key issue that South African
youth is faced with, which is unemployment. In their political campaigns, manifestos
and rallies, they touched on the key message that they would end unemployment,
this would then would appeal to voters as it addressed a key concern in their lives.
Making it easier for them to make a decision on why they would vote for the EFF.
The EFF also maintained its relationship with its supporters, voters, party members
by ensuring that they keep the promises made, they do so by finding jobs for their
registered party members, they ensure that they take matters raised by voters
serious, by trying to fix them. An example of this organizing marches to stop load
shedding. Below is the link as evidence for the EFF campaign strategy or Manifesto
as promises to voters, https://effonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/A5-EFF-2024-
Manifesto-full-version.pdf

A political party that was unsuccessful in applying the Social exchange theory would
be the ANC. When it worth=cost-rewards,( Wood and Tuner:2009)the ANC failed to
deliver on the promises they made to voters for the past five years, meaning that it
cost voters more to keep their relationship with the ANC, while they were not
benefiting from them. They failed to create jobs and fulfill their service delivery to the
community while in power, meaning that they lost a bulk majority of their voters
because they did not benefit anything from the relationship. When it came to
maintaining the relationship between them and their voters, the ANC was unable to
do so.

They were unable to address the key area of concerns of the South African youth,
which is unemployment, the unemployment rate under the ANC increased to 43%,
they also threatened to close down the unemployment grant by telling people that if
they don’t vote to keep the ANC in power, they would lose that benefit as well as the
National student financial aid scheme (Wood and Tuner:2009). When it came to
decision making the ANC was unable to appeal to younger demographics by
engaging and trying to find their areas of concern, they still have a bulk majority of
their party members being elders and the youth league is ineffective and does not
appeal to the youth of South Africa.

Proof of ANC promises to the voters

The Social exchange theory can be critiqued using the 5 criteria used to critique a
theory as well as explain its strengths and weaknesses. The first criteria used to
critique a theory is scope (Wood JT:2003). The strength of the social exchange
theory is that is has a broad focus, its goal is to understand various relationships
people have, from social, and interpersonal relationships. It tries to elaborate factors
that influence relationships such as economic and for emotional benefits. The
weakness of the theory is that it over analysis mutual interpersonal relationships and
forgets that there are feelings involved in relationships, rather than the assumption
that they are built to gain a certain advantage from another individual. Testability
allows to see if a theory can be tested. The social exchange theory strengths is that
it can be tested by means of surveys and observations to examine the claims made
by the theory. The weakness of the theory is that it could be difficult to test
relationships based on cost and rewards as some relationships are formed based on
more than benefiting from the other, like love, care and religious bonds.

Parsimony allows us to see if the theory is simple or complex. The social exchange
theory strengths is that it is fairly simple and is not hard to understand, it clearly
states that relationships are based on cost and rewards(Wood JT:2009). The
weakness of the theory is that even though the theory is simple, it overlooks a
number of factors such as the reasons behind relationships, why people stay in
relationships and the emotions involved. Utility allows us to examine if a theory is
useful or not. The strengths of the social exchange theory is that it may help us
understand social and economic relationships as to why they happen. The weakness
of the theory is that it may not be useful in evaluating long term relationships, as
there more emotions and reasons for why those relationships exist. Heurism
evaluates if a theory generates new ideas. The strengths of the social exchange
theory allows individuals to think or investigate relationships further to understand
relationship dynamics. The weakness of the theory is that focuses on self-interest
rather than other reasons why certain relationships are structured in that manner.

In Conclusion the Social exchange theory allows us to look further into detail to a
larger extent on the relationship between a political party and its voters(Wood
TJ:2003). The use of Campaign strategies used by political parties to persuade
voters, explains the social exchange theory as it speaks on worth=cost-rewards.
Individuals or citizens engage with political parties based on what they stand to
benefit from voting or supporting a political party. In order for the real to be
maintained rewards must outweigh the costs. The three theories discussed in the
essay offer a comprehensive understanding between individual and the why behind
why the have certain attributes or go about things the way they do. In closing a
theory provides a detailed explanation of how and why certain things around the
world are like that. They represent a certain view point that can be tested to find a
conclusion.
Reference list

1. Wood, J.T. 2003.Communication Theories inAction: An Introduction.

3rdEd. Boston: Wadsworth.Chapter 2. p. 30-50.
2. Griffin, E. 2012. Communication Privacy Management Theory of Sandra
Petronio. In A first look at communication theory. Eighth edition. McGraw
Hill:New York. pp. 168-180.

3. West, R., & Tuner, L.H. (2009). Understanding interpersonal

communication: Making choices in changing times. Boston: Wadsworth/
Cengage.