Political and Psychological Manipulations in the 2019 Presidential Election Campaign

The article is devoted to a topic that is always relevant to democracies: manipulations in election campaigns. Since media literacy as an educational discipline is not widely implemented in Ukrainian society, it causes the public to be manipulated, distorting reality with vivid illusions. It is the use of different techniques, «dirty» technologies, tactics, strategies that impedes the existence of democracy.

This article on the basis of media research (use of electronic sources, social networks and video hosting) reveals what manipulation strategies (according to N. Khomsky's typology) were used by the candidates in the 2019 presidential election campaign, as well as the influence of techniques and technologies used in within the framework of manipulative strategies.

It has been investigated how verbally and non-verbally was carried influence on electorate, namely: linguistically, psychologically, neurolinguistically, facial expressions, candidate gestures; as a message to the emotionally subconscious constituent of society can be decisive in the election race, how «distraction from the important» can help the candidate not lose their image and «ignorance and mediocrity», which helps candidates gain additional support for the electorate. Also in the article are considered archetypes that were used in the election campaign, their essence and meaning for society, «hanging labels»; the gradualness of the decisions that made the candidate popular with the public; trends that were created by candidate image makers to increase rankings and support. How you can use «guilt» to your advantage; manipulations with sociological surveys; conversation with the people as with a child and a play in a«simpleton». How the hyperbolizing of facts without comparison can cause great public outrage and disrupt an opponent's image, or how candidates have tarnished their image or changed it in general. A thorough mass impact analysis was conducted using manipulative technologies and strategies.

The research object was the election campaigns of three candidates: V. Zelenskyi, P. Poroshenko, Y. Tymoshenko.