When entering the campaign period, banners and billboards of various sizes will also be scattered in public places. In addition to banners and billboards, other print media used in election campaigns are posters. Poster is one of the print media that is often used in political activities as political communication strategy conducted by politicians. In addition to being used in political activities, posters are also used as a tool to promote various entertainment activities such as music or movies, demonstrations, publications, education, and convey the message of development to audiences in the sense. The countries that use the poster as one of the means of conveying the message of development to the audiences of which are the Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Korea. It is at once examples of the use of communication in development programs.
Print media is regarded as the backbone of communication because of its ability to reach a wide audience, the message is permanent after printing, the audience is free to set exposure to media content, easily stored, and retrieved. Understanding Poster stands of print media according to experts generally refer to newspapers and magazines. However, print media is not limited to newspapers and magazines. In advertising, which includes print media are letters, outdoor billboards , yellow pages , and posters.
As a print medium, posters also have characteristics of print media in general and characteristics of posters in particular. Thus, the characteristics of the poster are as follows:
Have a purpose
Generally, posters are made based on certain purposes such as advertising, propaganda, announcements, entertainment, travel, rallies, communication campaigns, education, and so on.Has a specific theme
Posters created by an organization generally have a specific theme. For example posters used in development communication or agricultural communications on new farming practices, or in health communication about prevention of dengue fever, or in communication of learning about biology subject matter, and so on. In communication learning or educational communication, the use of poster is part of effective communication strategy in learning or instructional communication strategy that aims to make learning materials easily understood by learners and delivered more effectively.Language
The language used in the poster is generally tailored to the target audience. In the sense that the language used in the poster is a language that is easily understood by the target audience, and does not use language that confuses audiences.It has text and image elements
Posters generally consist of elements in the form of text and images. But not closed possibility, the poster consists of words only or only consist of images only. For text to be easily read by audiences, the text should be written in large, bold letters, using simple letters such as Arial or Times New Roman, and using bullets and more. In addition, writing or text is presented using sufficient white space so that the poster does not look full. Or, do not use too much white space so the poster looks empty. The images presented in the poster should generally be in accordance with the intended purpose, theme, event or activity.Recorded
Messages delivered via posters are arranged systematically, in alenia, sentences, and words consisting of letters, and printed on paper. Thus, messages in the poster are recorded in such a way and are permanent.Easily saved and retrievable
Related to the nature of posters that can record messages permanently because printed on paper, then the poster can be easily stored or used as documentation and can be reused if needed. For example the year-end discount promo posters or holiday that has a certain period as part of marketing communications strategy undertaken by the retail management.Audiences are free to manage the exposure or exposure of the message content
Due to the nature that can be stored and can be taken back to make the audience can freely manage the exposure of posters message content. Therefore, the effects poster contents will not be the same in each individual. For example, a new movie promotion poster does not necessarily prompt audiences to buy tickets to watch the movie in theaters.
Informative
Poster has the function of the communication media in general that is to convey information. Thus, the message conveyed through the poster is informative depending on the theme and the purpose of making the poster. The presentation is not arbitrary but needs to pay attention to several things, among them is only to present the event or event in brief and clear and accompanied with relevant information; using relevant tables, graphs or photos so that it can be easily understood by the audiences who read the poster.Manufactured in bulk or limited
Generally, posters are made or produced in bulk. However, it is possible that posters are also produced in a limited way. This depends on the theme and purpose of making the poster itself and who becomes the target audience.Poster size
In general, posters are printed on A3 Standard Silk full color paper. The contents of the poster message are printed on one side and the other side is left blank to be affixed to the wall, bulletin board, or other vertical surface in accordance with the principles of good communication .Communicators are institutionalized or organization
Posters as an information medium are generally published by an institution or organization. For example, posters about international music concerts are published by music promoters or event organizers who bring in the international musicians.
