As a result of a decline in partisan identification, short-term factors, as seen in the Michigan Model, may have a greater influence on voter choice and the voter, looking for heuristics in order to choose their vote preference may be influenced through a direct experience with a party (such as through face-to-face canvassing) changing an individu al’s perception of a party and its policies. It could be said, therefore, that the ground campaign still has a vital role in the post- modern campaign as it helps to both re-affirm existing party identification and increase levels of partisanship amongst floating voters and, as a result, may have resulted in the Conservatives gaining an advantage over Labour in the 2010 general election, seen by many academics as one of the closest general elections seen in decades. Conversely it can be argued that, in the post-modern campaign era, the ground campaign is not relevant as a result of an emphasis placed upon the national campaign by the mass media, with Denver et al commenting that ‘for most people, the national campaign is the election campaign’. 215 Worcester, Mortimore and Baines expand upon this view by referencing a BES study of the 2005 British General Election which suggests that only 21% of those surveyed were canvassed on the doorstep by party officials, compared to 68% of respondents of the same study who watched the leader debates. 216 Thus the research conveys that the parties, acknowledging the potential influence of the mass media, have adapted their campaigning techniques in order to appeal to the electorate en masse rather than focusing on specific constituency voters. Dean and Croft exemplify this view by suggesting that the platform of Blair’s New Labour was of a PR-approach, 217 in which Blair utilised the dominance of the media seen in the post-modern campaign era in order to target 215 Denver et al. p.180 216 Worcester, R., Mortimore, R., & Baines, P. (2005). Explaining Labour’s landslip: The 2005 general election . London: Methuen p.196 217 Dean, D., & Croft, R. (2000). Friends and relations: long-term approaches to political campaigning. European Journal of Marketing, 35, pp.1205-1206
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