#GE2015: The General Election on Twitter

Abstract

Steven Ginnis and Carl Miller analyse the impact of microblogging phenomenon Twitter on the General Election. Although unrepresentative of the wider electorate, the forum can be studied as a way of understanding what a growing body of opinion-formers made of the campaign. The chapter researches Twitter’s role in the election through a comprehensive analysis of content in the four months leading up to polling day. A significant number of voters who were also social media participants were either aware of or actually involved in producing campaign related postings. Although there was a large amount of content, a relatively small group of ‘power users’ were responsible for creating content. Consideration is given the work of MPs, different parties and local as distinct from national campaigners.