The Digital Campaign: Are We There Yet?
| DOI | 10.1111/2041-9066.12112 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Author | Andy Williamson |
| Subject Matter | Article |
28 POLITICAL INSIGHT • DECEMBER 2015
The 2015 digital election
campaign was one of two halves:
the internal party strategies
and the public conversations
playing out on Twitter, Facebook and
elsewhere. Disappointingly for the social
media commentariat, there were no
really catastrophic online gaes in the
run-up to May. Perhaps the image of
Emily Thornberry’s ill-judged ‘white van
in Rochester’ tweet was still too fresh in
candidates’ minds? Previous experiences
have certainly focused the minds of
campaign managers on how quickly a
poorly thought through tweet can escalate
into a crisis. As a result, we saw little more
than the occasional rogue Ukipper break
ranks with the rather boring, scripted tweets
and posts that made up this election.
Social Media
Social media didn’t predict the outcome,
but neither was it a passive bystander. The
increasingly normative nature of social
tools means that it is a natural outlet
for expression. One of many, perhaps,
but a visible and often more public one.
According to Demos, the #GE2015 hashtag
had been mentioned more than 265,000
times by 9pm on polling day.
During the campaign, Labour got the
most mentions but how many of those
were positive? Ukip were well ahead of
the Conservatives on tweets but this
didn’t turn into seats. There were clear and
predictable peaks in social media traffic
and an expected steady increase as polling
day approached. However, the peaks
turned out to be the milestone moments
– leaders’ debates, dissolution of the house
and manifesto launches – and it was really
only the row over Labour’s proposal to
end ‘non-dom’ status that interested social
media early on. Cameron stood out in
terms of mentions for leaders, but again
it is difficult to tell what, if any, impact
these tweets were having on the hearts
and minds of voters. Particularly the critical
swing voters in the critical marginal seats.
The most obvious fail was the
Conservatives’ pre-programmed
‘strong and commanding performance’
message from the leaders’
Question Time
programme ahead of the general election.
Parroted online almost verbatim by a long
list of Tories who clearly didn’t understand
how social media worked. In general, the
two big parties, and most candidates,
The Digital Campaign:
Are We There Yet?
2015 was heralded as the first ‘social media’ UK general election, but did Twitter, Facebook and other digital
platforms really make a difference on polling day? Andy Williamson weighs up the evidence.
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