Posts Tagged ‘politics’
Did Facebook and Twitter influence the General Election?
May 7th, 2010
As I took up my blunt pencil attached to a piece of string in the polling booth yesterday, and made a cross against my chosen candidate, it struck me how much Twitter and Facebook have enhanced my interest and understanding around this General Election, but similarly how far the UK still has to go before we can experience a truly, socially-connected election.
This was the first General Election where Twitter and Facebook played a part. They gave the electorate a new ‘voice’ aside from their vote, enabling them to freely discuss election issues in an uncensored environment within a much wider network of individuals.
Facebook set-up a live voter counter on its website (via a tie-up with the Electoral Commission) - according to the final tally, 107,892 Facebook users voted. A poll was also conducted through this group, aka the Facebook election, which saw Nick Clegg and the LibDems emerge victorious. Facebook groups and political pages have been hugely active - today a particularly active one seems to be ‘I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who want Proportional Representation - UK‘.
But how much of this social network activity and buzz was two-way conversation and engagement?
A comment on the BBC blog is telling:
“I asked questions via Twitter of the main parties, but no reply was ever returned. In fact, the only politician who replied was John Prescott. The political parties were treating Twitter just like another letterbox through which to poke leaflets - but failing to grasps the idea that such systems require two-way communication to be effective. I just felt ignored by them online.”
Today across Twitter in particular, and to a lesser degree Facebook, there seems to be a general feeling that today’s election results do not match with their political learnings and discussions over the past few weeks. BBC blogger, Rory Cellan-Jones, makes the same conclusion in his blog post: So was it an Internet Election?. He opens the post saying: “The verdict was already in, even before polling day. This was not an internet election, and all those who had suggested it might be had got it completely wrong. It was a television election, and all of those tweeters and bloggers were sad political obsessives talking to each other.”
Facebook and Twitter have undoubtedly provided a gateway to political engagement, and importantly among the younger generation. A YouGov survey found that a quarter of 18-24-year-olds had commented on politics via social networks. But at the end of the day, this activity seems to have had little impact on the final election outcome.
PR Observations on a Week in Politics
January 15th, 2010
It’s been a heavy week in politics, particularly from a PR standpoint. I thought it might be interesting to summarise my observations…
1. The Government’s apology to thalidomide survivors was delivered yesterday by Health Minister Mike O’Brien. It marked a big moment for victims of the 1950’s drug disaster in which pregnant women were severely affected as a result of having taken the drug for medical conditions such as morning sickness. It caused severe abnormalities in their babies, many of whom died within months of being born.
It’s taken 50 years for the Government to publicly take the blame, taking crisis management to a whole new level. Some however have questioned why the statement was delivered by a junior government minister - surely a British regulatory failure should be handled by no other than the most senior of spokespeople?
2. DUP leader Peter Robinson stepped down as Northern Ireland’s First Minister for six weeks to allow for an official investigation into his conduct surrounding his wife’s private life and finances. Robinson has completely rejected allegations that he knew about the £50,000 that his wife obtained from two developers for her teenage lover but did not tell the proper authorities.
Stepping aside can be a useful, temporary PR tactic, but opinion remains divided over whether an ‘innocent’ verdict will restore public confidence. Six weeks is a long time in politics, particularly amid a political crisis over devolution of policing and justice powers.
The DUP’s decision to publicly support Robinson is a brave one, and one they may live to regret. Jim Allister, the leader of Traditional Unionist Voice, commented: “The damage done to the Robinson brand is transferred to the DUP brand by such unequivocal support.”
3. Alastair Campbell’s appearance at the Iraq Inquiry once again begged the quesion why a communications man became so heavily involved in British Intelligence, including being involved in the writing of the WMD dossier. Don’t ever underestimate the power of a PR man (or woman!).
It’s been Campbell’s word against the former head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, demonstrating the power a few words can hold. James Kirkup’s posts on the subject over at the Telegraph blog are well worth a read.