06 May Why Did The Digital Election Prove To Be A Damp Squib?
This article first appeared on the CorpComms magazine website
Regardless of the result of Thursday’s vote, the 2010 General Election has been one of the most remarkable in living memory. The way that Nick Clegg has emerged from nowhere to completely transform the fortunes of the country’s ‘third party’ is something that would have seemed foolish to predict only a few weeks ago. And it’s the communications industry that has, arguably, changed the face of British politics – possibly for good, should the Liberal Democrats gained a foothold in the new Parliament and force through electoral reform to a form of proportional representation.
Clegg’s extraordinary rise in popularity has been due his performances in the live leaders’ debates; a first for British politics and critical in informing public opinion. Clegg has appeared confident, relaxed, trustworthy and accomplished in front of the TV cameras, and his huge gains on both David Cameron and Gordon Brown are proof that television is still the dominant medium in the UK in terms of communications, PR and marketing. Odd as it sounds, however, there are those of us working in the communications industry that this has taken somewhat by surprise.
A month ago, many predicted that this year’s election would not be played out in the hustings, or in the papers or even on the brand new TV debates. This was to be the election where the digital industry came to the fore. In the 2005 election, online campaigning had a relatively minor impact, but five years later Facebook is the second most visited website in the world with over 400 million active users, Twitter enables real-time discussion unlike any other medium that has come before it, and YouTube provides access to news stories at any time to anyone with an internet connection. Furthermore, the advance of mobile technology means that we can access all of this information on our handsets, on the go, from anywhere. Yes, digital campaigning was to decide who was resident in 10 Downing Street come 7th May.
But it hasn’t quite worked out like that. TV has hijacked the ‘digital election’, with the likes of Facebook and YouTube trailing a long way behind in terms of influence. Sure, people have discussed the election on Facebook, and it’s probably fair to say that many people, especially first time voters, have been drawn into conversation due to social media. But in terms of its ability to inform, the old media of TV has put the newcomer firmly in its place.
The one place where I have witnessed the election played out online with any sort of impact has been on Twitter. Watching the debates live on TV while simultaneously monitoring the micro-blogging service with my smartphone was a fascinating experience and provided strong evidence of both the power of real-time communications and the value of Twitter itself. The way tribes of digital immigrants and natives came together to discuss the debates as they happened was truly amazing, with comments on points made by Brown, Cameron and Clegg made within literally seconds. It was like watching the TV in my living room on a sofa with hundreds of other people.
However, as powerful as the conversations on Twitter were, these would not have happened were it not for TV. Twitter may have facilitated the exchange of thousands of opinions and thoughts for a couple of hours a week, but these were based around the debates happening on TV at the time. Without old media, new media would not have had nearly as much impact.
I’m therefore left in two minds when it comes to the digital election. Did social media have an impact? Yes. Was it a major impact? Probably not. It was something of a let down for a digital media professional, truth be told. And so I’m left undecided – has it proved that social media doesn’t quite have the impact that we think it does, or does the fact that a couple of live TV debates have changed the entire course of the 2010 campaign simply speak volumes about how disillusioned and, arguably, confused the general public is with the state of the British political environment? Only time will tell…
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