Social media campaigns via popular sites like Facebook may be able to get ‘Rage Against The Machine’ to Number One in the music charts but they will have little influence on the outcome of the 2010 UK general election. In contrast, the televised election debates will prove a powerful platform for the three main political parties.

GfK NOP Technology research conducted online (so we would also expect a skew towards online sources) shows that TV debates have the most influence on how we vote as a nation. Despite the fieldwork for our survey being conducted after only the first of three televised debates on 16 April, they are still the number one source of information for the election on 6 May.

As an example of this contrast, official viewing figures suggest that around 8.4m viewers watched the third debate, vs. 3.2 m UK visitors to the BBC news website (with 350,000 streaming the debates online).

Interestingly, a similar number of people had watched party political broadcasts and election news (45%) as the TV debates (49%) but their influence varies considerably. Of those who watched TV debates 26% said that they had had the biggest impact on who they would vote for. Conversely, for party political broadcasts or election news on TV, this fell to just 10%.

In an election where it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the parties and navigate through the spin, the TV debates have provided a platform for UK voters to truly assess each party. The TV debates put the party leaders on the spot, not in terms of questioning, (I’m sure they’re fully briefed) but in the way they respond to each other.

Debates offer the chance to see the personality behind the policy (or perhaps a carefully sculptured version of that image), which is more than can be offered by a written press release. Although the three candidates are still mainly dealing in easily-digestible sound bites, the televised debates offer those members of the public who perhaps don’t have the time or the inclination to read the manifestos in depth to get a grasp on the key issues.

In contrast, internet sources lack the ‘live’ human connection the TV debates provide. Twelve per cent of the UK have read election news via broadsheets’ online news websites, but only  two per cent of this group say that it was the biggest influence on their vote. The main social media site to register any influence was Facebook, where six per cent of people had discussed politics, but only one per cent of this group said it was the most influential source of information about the election.

The lack of influence from social media could also be down to a lack of investment and understanding. The Conservative Party have probably considered this medium the most, but overall, all three main parties’ online and social media strategies are pretty poor. For example, there are no obvious attempts to link social media platforms, like Facebook, to party promotional material. Furthermore, Labour MP Stuart MacLennan showed a complete lack of understanding about how Twitter works (you say things that are controversial… it spreads pretty quickly) and was consequently sacked for inappropriate comments.

Whether it’s a lack of interest from the public or a lack of understanding by UK political parties, online and social media will have little influence on how people vote on 6 May. Despite this, we strongly believe that new media will play a bigger role in future elections, just as it is increasingly influencing other areas of society.

For all those interested in the data from this survey you can view it

RESEARCH NOTES:

GfK NOP Technology conducted a survey among 1279 UK adults between 16^th and 21^st April 2010. The interviews were conducted online and are representative on UK adults who have access to the internet.

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Tags: , Politics, Social Networks, TV, TV Debate, , UK General Election