I think it depends on two situation: One situation when one ask for a great change from his or her audience, persuasion might not be effective anymore in today's world; while a message that encourages a minor change from the audience, for example, an advertisement, art of persuasion might just work or I should say that as the art of advertisement.
For the first situation, when politicians ask the audience to agree with their idea of movement, people are normally reluctant to change. They may not feel confident of their capability or they fear to unable to match up the expectation or they are in their comfort zone that they are not looking for changes. These are personal perception and individual preference because they are asked to make change that is often portrayed by the politician as a change that will affect others at the same time. Thus persuasion in this sense is depending on the acceptance of the audience.
On the other hand, a small change affecting the audience own lifestyle, such as persuasion in advertisement will have an impact on the audience because they have the ability to directly control the outcome. Advertisement is often time an exaggerated way to sell a product. In my opinion, people are just born with curiosity and that is why advertisement can easily catch their attention. I just think that, persuasion is not an effective way in politics anymore as people are afraid to stand up anymore. The time when people are determined to fight for what they believe is disappearing because people now are too comfortable with their life.
Furthermore, I also think that persuasion is dying along with the fast spread of information. Today, people can easily gather information that either agrees or disagree with their thought from the Internet nowadays. There are all kinds of opinions around the world, people share them on the web and seek for agreement. With the diversified culture and environment across the world, it is possible to find someone to agree with what you can think out of. Thus, they have the option to listen to any public persuasion and refuse to accept them. This has somehow further enhanced individual's stand and rejected a new view on an issue which diminishes the effect of persuasion.
Looking into a country far away from the United States, Malaysia, the freedom of speech is not practice so widely and with the limited transparency of the government to its people. I have to say persuasion in the public is normally just not as effective. People are so reluctant to listen to a political party because they just hardly believe what they saw are the whole of an issue. People there tend to just accept what they have and mind their own business especially Chinese Malaysians that have fought their way to stand out in the Malay community. It is disappointed thinking of the way people communicates back home. People just do not share or commute their opinions enough to reach an understanding. Fortunately, I am glad that the government is moving into a semi-democratic and recently there are many exchanges in opinions on the transparency of the government. For people that grew up in this environment, such as me, it is a huge step moving into a society that can have political protest on the street where it used to be against the law once upon a time.
In the end, persuasion requires many elements to be able to successfully call for an action. However, with the accessibility to any kind of information through the Internet now and with the emphasis on individualism in this country, persuasion is dying as time past because the audience has increasingly insisted on his or her own thought.
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