Fishburn Hedges

17.09.2009

Communications has gone digital and politics has followed. Whatever the outcome of the next General Election, it will be the first social media election.

For every political party the use of this new medium will force them to break with the past and change their approach.  The spin doctors will still try to command the news agenda for each campaign day, but success will necessitate embracing and engaging voters through the blogosphere, through Twitter and Facebook as well as through traditional channels.

This digital world means that Party leaders may have to take a deep breath and recognise that in this election campaign they are increasingly at the mercy of events and in the hands of their activists and candidates.

The open, transparent approach to communication demanded by social media channels comes with massive risk.  We saw the danger to MPs’ political careers when Alan Duncan met an activist on the House of Commons terrace. In the old world an innocuous enough conversation about the gripes and grumbles of Parliamentary life after the expenses scandal would be lost in the wind. In this new social media driven world comments can be recorded and distributed in seconds and can do significant damage to parliamentary careers. A poll of activists on the influential ConservativeHome website calling overwhelmingly for Duncan to step down proved to be the final straw.

So the next Prescott punch is just as likely to be filmed on a mobile phone and uploaded to YouTube by a member of a public than caught by the legions of journalists on the campaign trail. It is the risk of these unscripted moments that causes so much concern for the Party media managers. But social media also offers tremendous opportunities for political communication as evidenced by the recent US Presidential election. Team Obama’s ability to reach beyond the traditional media, achieve buy-in to his message, and raise money online has not gone unnoticed by UK politicians.

The Conservative Party has been singularly successful in building its supporter base through digital media engagement, through ‘get to know you’ channels like WebCameron and a dynamic party website. They have also been able to capitalise on general dissatisfaction with Labour on political blogs day after day.

As Labour’s grip on power weakens we are beginning to see them adopt a more creative use of social media channels. The #welovethenhs Twitter campaign, is one example, where people tweeted in their reasons for supporting the NHS. While the origins for this campaign were at a grassroots level, it forced the Conservatives onto the back foot and marked Labour's most successful campaigning moment for a long time (although, notably, it has failed to make an impact in the opinion polls).

Ed Balls has established a Change We See Flickr campaign group which calls on Labour members to post photos of new infrastructure built under Labour. Sadiq Khan, the transport minister, used Twitter to announce his promotion and has been assiduous in documenting his ministerial life. The Party is attempting to use social media to prove its relevance, and to share proof points of its success. They hope that this also has a beneficial effect, through word of mouth, on the perceptions of constituents.

But is digital media more a tool of opposition than Government? Despite Obama’s impressive digital strategy he has struggled to find an effective way to bring these strengths to support him as President.  The majority of the most influential political blogs are highly critical of the Government.  Is this the nature of the medium? Will the Conservatives find a use for their impressive social media strategy if they achieve power?

To consider these issues, our events, entitled "You tweet if you want to: the web is for opposition, not for governing" will take place on the Monday evenings of both conferences. Panellists at each event, chaired by Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, will be able to respond to questions and comments tweeted onto a Twitterwall at the event by Twitter users as well as those posed by the audience in the room.

The events have already secured top speakers including David Miliband MP, Ed Balls MP, Ben Bradshaw MP, Sadiq Khan MP, Caroline Flint MP, Daniel Hannan MEP, Douglas Carswell MP, Peter Barron from Google, and Twitter Tsar Kerry McCarthy MP, as well as well known bloggers such as Iain Dale, Tim Montgomerie and Alex Hilton.

We hope you can join us, either in person or by following the proceedings on Channel 4 News’ live blog.  You can also tweet questions in to the event at any time up to and including the night itself by including the hashtag #twinge in your tweet.

Videos from the event: