Is Web 2.0 Providing a Voice for Outsiders? A Comparison of Personal Web Site and Social Media Use by Candidates at the 2010 UK General Election

ABSTRACT

The apparent success of President Obama’s online election campaigns in the 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections and the rapid growth in use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter by British voters since the last election has led to much speculation that 2010 would be a “watershed” moment for UK politicians and parties in their adoption of digital tools. This article seeks to measure the precise extent of online campaigning during the 2010 general election campaign and explain the patterns of adoption observed. It does so by using an extensive and original data set that measures the adoption of Web sites by candidates from six parties in all constituencies in England, and measures adoption and use of four types of social media for a smaller group of more competitive constituencies. It aims to test one of the leading theories in the field of online campaigning, the normalization thesis, using the most comprehensive and rigorous data collected in the United Kingdom to date. The normalization thesis states that actors who already have the most influence will be the ones most likely to benefit from new online campaign methods. This paper finds that although patterns of Web site adoption among candidates do support normalization overall, adoption and use of certain types of social media refute normalization on some measures, some to a strong degree.

KEYWORDS:

• Campaigns
• democracy
• elections
• online
• social media
• Web sites

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosalynd Southern

Rosalynd Southern is a research associate for the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research at the University of Manchester. Her research interests are in online electoral campaigning, particularly at the constituency level.