Abstract
The chapter focuses on the different approaches taken by the Conservative and Labour in terms of digital campaigning. The well-financed, targeted advertising-based Tory strategy is contrasted with the more organic, pro-Labour efforts involving a diffuse group of online left-wing activists. A critical two years had elapsed in which the former did not innovate whereas the digital media environment in the political realm responded to and changed in the light of the installation of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. The growth of an influential network of pro-Corbyn websites is contrasted with the apparent shortcomings of the Conservatives’ rival operation.
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Notes
- 1.
According to YouGov data shown in figure one, there was a strikingly clear set of age gaps between Conservative and Labour voters (Curtis 2017). So dramatic was this divide that age was subsequently touted as the new key predictor of voting behaviour in British politics (ibid.). Interestingly, the firmly centrist Liberal Democrats captured a consistent 7–9% of the vote in every age group, suggesting the age divide was a distinctly two-party voting phenomenon. Broken down the data showed that Labour had a higher vote share in every age group up to and including 40–49. Labour was 47% ahead among voters aged 18–19 year olds, a figure that almost directly mirrors the Conservative Party’s 50% lead among voters aged 70 and over. This clearly demonstrated the sharp generational divide in this election. Compared to YouGov’s 2015 data on British voting behaviour this was the result of a dramatic upsurge in young people voting for the Labour Party, with the percentage nearly doubling among those aged 18–29 (Kellner 2015). Moreover, the fall in young people that voted for the Conservatives was significant, but not as large as the rise in those supporting Labour.
- 2.
Messina’s modelling had suggested that the Conservatives would win 371 seats in the 2017 General Election.
- 3.
As Anstead argues, “while it [data-driven campaigning ] might play a role in reshaping political parties, campaigning practices , election outcomes, and how voters relate to politics, it will also be grounded in pre-existing political practices in specific contexts” (Anstead 2017: 309; see Sloam and Ehsan [2017: 20]).
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McDowell-Naylor, D. (2019). #GE2017: Digital Media and the Campaigns. In: Wring, D., Mortimore, R., Atkinson, S. (eds) Political Communication in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00822-2_13
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