Session 10: Leadership as a Political Skill

Heywood discusses different theories of leadership. He discusses what factors or personal traits which make one to lead a group of people or even a country. It is true that  to be a leader one should have those inborn leadership qualities but the era in which we are living it is not a necessary that traits should be present. It is a type of art which can be learned and practiced by giving the person you wanted to be elected, a tremendous team of campaign who will hide all his flaws and will only highlight his leadership qualities and his God like figure, which we the people want to see. It is a game of manipulation. In this game of manipulation the mass communication especially the electronic media is playing a key role in it. It does not majorly depend on the person but more on how he is presented. This can be seen in 2012’s election of United States of America. How Barrack Obama persuaded the American people to vote for him. Media portrayed him as the savior who will bring change in the country though the amount of change they were claiming was not going to happen everyone knew it.  He was portrayed as a sign of hope and unity. The slogan of his campaign “the change we need “and how many times it was repeated on the internet and televisions and other sources of media persuade the American people to vote for him but in reality he was like other people but it was the way how he was presented changed everything and made him the president of United States of America. It is believed that Obama’s long dominance in the television media played a major role in persuading people to vote for him.