Social media monitoring in politics can
While we know something of data-driven campaigning practices in the US, we know much less about the role of data in other national contexts. The 2015 UK General Election offers an important case study of how such practices are evolving and being deployed in a different setting. This article draws on 31 in-depth interviews with political practitioners involved in the use of data for six major UK parties and electoral regulators. These interviews are employed to explore the perceived importance of data in contemporary British campaigns, to understand the data-based campaign techniques being used by UK parties, and to assess how data-driven practices are interacting with the pre-existing institutional context of British politics. Going beyond the specifics of the UK case, this study raises questions about the comparative, theoretical, and normative dimensions of data-driven politics.
This paper advances the study of microblogging and political events by investigating how one high-profile broadcast acted as a stimulus to real-time commentary from viewers using Twitter. Our case study is a controversial, high-ratings episode of BBC Question Time, the weekly British political debate show, in October 2009, in which Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party, appeared as a panelist. The "viewertariat" emerging around such a political event affords the opportunity to explore interaction across media formats. We examine both the structural elements of engagement online and the expressions of collective identity expressed in tweets. Although many concerns noted in previous studies of online political engagement remain (inequality in the propensity to comment, coarseness of tone), we find certain notable characteristics in the sample, especially a direct link between the quantity of tweets and events on the screen, an ability to preempt the arguments offered by panelists, and ways in which viewertariat members add new content to the discussion. Furthermore, Twitter users commenting online express a range of overlapping identities. These complexities challenge broadcasting and political institutions seeking to integrate new, more organic models of engagement.Mark Thompson argued that for the BBC to fulfill its obligations as an impartial broadcaster, the BNP had to be invited to appear (Thompson 2009). However, the invitation was publically opposed by many, including one member of the Cabinet, who described it as "extraordinary . . . [and] a fundamental error" (Hain 2009). These heated discussions between high-profile figures certainly did not harm interest in the program. More than eight million people tuned in, three times the normal audience share (Deans 2009).In order to understand the controversy the invitation to Griffin caused, it is necessary to understand the role of Question Time within the British political system. First aired in 1979 and broadcast on BBC1 (the BBC's most viewed entertainment-focused channel), Question Time is a central part of the BBC's current affairs broadcasting timetable. The format is modeled on a "townhall" type of discussion. Each week, a panel, consisting of five people, including politicians from across the party spectrum and commentators, answers topical questions posed by an audience made up of members of the general public. This proximity between the governing and the governed makes the program unusual, both in the United Kingdom and also in an international context. Very few politicians around the world expose themselves to such direct public scrutiny, making the program the most high-profile political discussion show on British television (McNair et al. 2003: 39, 67). Thus, BBC Question Time is, in both senses of the word, an "institution" (Cottle 2003: 164): a venerable and reliably predictable part of the British current affairs broadcasting setup, but also a political event of note, attracting very senior figures from the major parties eac...
A common interpretation of the low levels of electoral turnout of young voters is that they are apathetic and part of a generation which does not care about political issues -indeed, a selfish and materialistic generation. In this article, we question this common perception and test this claim against an important alternative: that the limitations to youth participation in Europe is not due to a lack of interest in the public good, but rather to a combination of contextual and psychosocial factors, including the real as well as perceived inadequacy of the existing political offer. We assessed young people's attitudes towards democratic life in the UK, France, Spain, Austria, Finland, and Hungary. We used a mixture of comparative mass survey, stakeholder interviews, an experiment, and focus groups. Our data suggests that young people are willing to engage politically but are turned off by the focus and nature of existing mainstream political discourse and practice which many believe excludes them and ignores their needs and interests. Contrary to the assumptions of the disaffected and apathetic citizen approach, there is a strong desire amongst many young Europeans to participate in democratic life but this desire is not met by existing democratic institutions and discourses.
While much literature on the Internet has drawn heavily on the ideas of normalization or optimism, this article seeks to define a more complex relationship between existing political institutions and new technology. With reference to the development of campaign finance strategies in the US and the UK, it will aim to show that existing political circumstances and technology share a dialectic relationship when it comes to generating outcomes. The success of online fundraising in the US is certainly reforming political life, but is the product of longstanding arrangements and beliefs which have catalyzed its impact. In contrast, in the United Kingdom institutional arrangements have retarded the potential of the Web in this area. Keywords: campaigns, elections, fundraising, online politics, United Kingdom, United States Campaign Finance in the US and the UK Page 3 of 45The analysis of any new technological phenomena invariably raises the question of ontological primacy, and in particular the distinction between technological and sociological determinism. The development of the Internet and the ramifications it has for political competition are no exception to this rule. Two distinct camps -the "optimists" and the "normalisers" -have emerged as the contemporary standard bearers for technological and sociological determinism respectively. The optimists focus on the technological attributes of
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