"Despite much chatter that the UK’s upcoming May poll could be “the first social media election”, such a thing is looking unlikely.
Analyst group Ovum says parties have only gone as far as using social web tools “aimed primarily at communication and collaboration within the established caste of politicians, journalists, and interest groups”. That’s not very inclusive…
“The parties acknowledge that social media can be used to mobilise activists, engage new audiences, or harvest a long tail of donators,” says Ovum senior analyst Vuk Trifkovic. “However, unless the parties have a surprise up their sleeve, we do not believe that social media will play an integral part of the campaign efforts in the forthcoming elections.”
“Last night’s chancellors’ debate and the upcoming leaders’ debates make it far more likely that 2010 will be remembered as the ‘TV election’ rather than the ‘social media election’.”
There’s a reason for that, in my opinion. Campaigns, in essence, are one-way communication periods - by the time a campaign comes around, policies should have already been worked out, key messages prioritised. The public’s part to play in an election campaign is to listen, judge promises and to act by voting...
The periods between campaigns, however, are the periods ripe for citizen engagement. These are the times when parties should be listening, both to their grassroots and to the electorate…
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign is often hailed as a seminal one for online politics - but it was 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean who made most strides harnessing the web; not just to campaign, but to rebuild his party’s consensus through dialogue (read his campaign manager’s book on the subject). This, too, is what the Conservative party’s grassroots blogosphere has been doing since the Tories lost the last election - debating and getting its house in order in time for the upcoming election. Now is the time voters get to judge that work…
Ovum nails it: “Election campaigns have a finite lifespan.” The ambition for a one-off “social media election” belies the hope that online citizen engagement in politics could be perpetrual, not every five years. "
Questions:
- What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you agree that this years first social media is unlikely? Or do you disagree and still persist that this year will be the first social media election?
This is the full article and is written by Robert Andrews. The article is posted in PaidContent:UK (The cover the UK's digital media economy). Date of article posted is March 30, 2010
For the online article and site go to: http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-a-social-media-election-not-this-time-around/
1 comment:
- What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you agree that this years first social media is unlikely? Or do you disagree and still persist that this year will be the first social media election?
Hey Patrick, first of all i think this issue was a great topic that goes well with this class and good question. Secondly Yes I do beleive that this year will be the first social media election and this is some of my reasons. After looking at the issues, I think that the collaboration of the new media techniques can indeed be engaging audiences in a new way due to how new technology has changed a persons daily life style. Due to all the new forms of recieving information, people can also make the impact of a persons campiagn go well or fail. I think of it like a "cash cow" The cash cow being the candidate. The candidate is very popular to the public at first but after the so called "hype" dies down, the hype is not longer there and pople begin to loose interest. Well, with a campaign, the candidates have to learn how to impact there audiences are a more intense and technology savy way or alse they will indeed become a cash cow. This is just my opinion but I also wonder how the rest of the class thinks about this issue and how the class feels about the campaign and if new technology can make or break a candidate.
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