The Head of Department for Communication Studies at the University of Media, Arts and Communications (UniMAC)-Gha­na Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Dr Lawrencia Agyepong has urged politicians and political leaders to turn negative gossip about them during election periods into a positive ones.

According to him, negative gossip during electioneering periods influences the decisions of some potential voters negatively, affecting the number of votes for that particular candidate.

She made this known at the Directorate of Research, Innovation, and Development inter-faculty research lecture held in Accra, on Friday.

It had the theme, “Deadly Whispers: Understanding the Role of Gossip in Political Campaigns.”

Dr. Agyepong said that according to her research, about a third of people feel that negative gossip would shape their opinion about their preferred candidate negatively.

She said people see positive gossips as the reinforcement of their opinion of political can­didates during elections, which influence them the most to vote for these candidates.

“As much as you want to ignore the gossip, remember that we have a lot of swing voters in the country, so if that negative gossip causes those swing voters, even just a small percentage of them to change their mind about voting for you, that can be really impactful in the long run,” she stated.

Dr. Agyepong advised political party candidates not to ignore negative gossip during political campaigns since it can influence the opinion of their potential voters.

She said they should try to address those gossips and turn them into something positive to influence these people's opinions positively.

Dr. Agyepong said gossip has a social role that it plays in society, but people only focus on the negative side of it once it is mentioned.

However, she was focused on the political aspect of it and the pattern it plays in political campaigns in the country’s political system.

“I want to assess the impact of negative gossip on political candidates during election periods because during every campaign season, there are a lot of gossips that are put out there about aspirants,” she noted.