Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Facebook and Satellite Campaigns
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse some examples of digital practices led by parties during the 2017 General Election campaign and argue that whilst targeted advertising through Facebook has become the new normal for parties, it raises important questions about data-use and public expectations that require attention.
Abstract: In this chapter we analyse some examples of digital practices led by parties during the
2017 General Election campaign. We argue that whilst targeted advertising through
Facebook has become the new normal for parties, it raises important questions
regarding data-use and public expectations that require attention. We also suggest that
digital media has enabled new non-party organisations to conduct what we call
‘satellite campaigns’. This development raises issues around party control, activist
organisation and what we can expect from future digital campaigns. Cumulatively we
therefore argue that developments in the digital realm have important implications for
our understanding of electoral campaigning.
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TL;DR: The authors identifies an unease, or even squeamishness, in the way in which political science addresses social media and digital politics, and argues that we urgently need to avoid such discomfort.
Abstract: This article identifies an unease, or even squeamishness, in the way in which political science addresses social media and digital politics, and argues that we urgently need to avoid such squeamish...
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore what we know about Facebook advertising at elections and ask what existing data from the UK Electoral Commission can reveal about current usage, highlighting the principles behind Facebook advertising and arguing that existing metrics offer little insight into current campaign trends.
Abstract: Political advertising on Facebook is the latest in a long line of developments in campaign practice, and is a tool that has been mobilised extensively in elections around the world. In this article, we explore what we know about Facebook advertising at elections and ask what existing data from the UK Electoral Commission can reveal about current usage. Highlighting the principles behind Facebook advertising, we argue that existing metrics offer little insight into current campaign trends—posing analytical, methodological and normative challenges for academics and electoral regulators alike. Moreover, we argue that these challenges strike at the heart of debates about democratic responsibility and the degree to which governments should cede responsibility to commercial actors who may have differing understandings of fundamental democratic norms.
35 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a Table of Table of contents of a table of tables: https://www.tableoffeatures.com/table-of-pages/table.
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26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that important changes to the production, dissemination, and receptibility of digital media are needed to drive profound changes to contemporary politics, including important changes in production, distribution, and reception.
Abstract: Digital (participatory and shareable) media are driving profound changes to contemporary politics. That includes, this article argues, important changes to the production, dissemination and recepti...
23 citations
Cites background from "Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..."
...There are studies of the impact of digital media on specific political processes including elections (Margetts, 2017), parties (Dommett, 2018; Gerbaudo, 2018b) and campaigning (Dommett and Temple, 2018)....
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TL;DR: Following the 2017 UK general election, there was much debate about the so-called "youthquake" or increase in youth turnout (YouGov), and some journalists claimed it was the " memes wot won it" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Following the 2017 UK general election, there was much debate about the so-called ‘youthquake’, or increase in youth turnout (YouGov). Some journalists claimed it was the ‘. . . memes wot won it’. ...
18 citations
Cites background from "Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..."
...…team had significantly better online engagement, especially geared towards young people (Chadick, 2017; Segesten and Bossetta, 2017); Labour-affiliated groups like Momentum had specifically attempted to generate such content (Dommett and Temple, 2018); and young people overwhelmingly supported...
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References
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TL;DR: Results from a randomized controlled trial of political mobilization messages delivered to 61 million Facebook users during the 2010 US congressional elections show that the messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real-world voting behaviour of millions of people.
Abstract: Online social networks are everywhere. They must be influencing the way society is developing, but hard evidence is scarce. For instance, the relative effectiveness of online friendships and face-to-face friendships as drivers of social change is not known. In what may be the largest experiment ever conducted with human subjects, James Fowler and colleagues randomly assigned messages to 61 million Facebook users on Election Day in the United States in 2010, and tracked their behaviour both online and offline, using publicly available records. The results show that the messages influenced the political communication, information-seeking and voting behaviour of millions of people. Social messages had more impact than informational messages and 'weak ties' were much less likely than 'strong ties' to spread behaviour via the social network. Thus online mobilization works primarily through strong-tie networks that may exist offline but have an online representation.
2,003 citations
"Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..." refers background in this paper
...Given the evidence that seeing a political message on a friend’s page can affect voting behaviour (Bond et al., 2012), Facebook provides parties with a range of new capacities that can enhance their campaigns....
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...Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/71/suppl_1/189/4930846 by University of Sheffield user on 20 April 2018 voting behaviour (Bond et al., 2012), Facebook provides parties with a range of new capacities that can enhance their campaigns....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the Internet encourages organizational hybridity by enabling organizational change among traditional interest groups and political parties, such that they are starting to resemble the looser network forms characteristic of social movements.
Abstract: This article is driven by two interrelated questions. First, is the Internet enabling organizational change among traditional interest groups and political parties, such that they are starting to resemble the looser network forms characteristic of social movements? Second, what role is the Internet playing in new, conceptually intriguing citizen organizations such as MoveOn, the U.S.-based but internationally oriented entity? I develop the concept of repertoires to argue that the Internet encourages “organizational hybridity.” This captures two trends. First, established interest groups and parties are experiencing processes of hybridization based on the selective transplantation and adaptation of digital network repertoires previously considered typical of social movements. Second, new organizational forms are emerging that exist only in hybrid form and that could not function in the ways that they do without the Internet and the complex spatial and temporal interactions it facilitates. These “hybrid mob...
326 citations
"Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..." refers background in this paper
...…by University of Sheffield user on 20 April 2018 back and forth between being a party-sympathizer to carrying out the role of a party-activist, further blurring the lines between models of party membership and affiliation (Chadwick, 2007, 2017; Scarrow, 2015; Guaja, 2015)....
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TL;DR: The authors argue that digital media are introducing a new grassroots-based mode of "citizen-initiated campaigning" (CIC) that challenges the dominant professionalized model of campaign management by devolving power over core tasks to the grassroots.
Abstract: This article argues that digital media are introducing a new grassroots-based mode of ‘citizen-initiated campaigning’ (CIC) that challenges the dominant professionalized model of campaign management by devolving power over core tasks to the grassroots. After defining the practice through reference to the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama and online parties literature, we devise a measure of CIC that is applied to UK parties in the 2010 election. Our findings show that CIC is emerging outside the U.S. and adoption is associated with major party status, although it may be of particular appeal to political actors facing a resource deficit. The conclusions focus on the implications of CIC for new forms of party membership, indirect voter mobilization and the contextual factors influencing this new model of campaigning.
183 citations
"Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..." refers background in this paper
...Satellite campaigns have the capacity to challenge ‘the professionalized top-down approach that has dominated post-war elections, particularly over the past three decades’ (Gibson, 2015, p. 183)....
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...Tracing the rise of email, party websites, social media, online videos and gamification, scholars have shown how, since the 1990s, parties have become heavily dependent on digital technology (Gibson, 2015)....
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...…phone bank applications, raise money online, organise campaign events or disseminate party materials on social media are seen to enable ‘autonomous action and tactical control of campaign operations at the local level on a scale that was not possible in the predigital era’ (Gibson, 2015, p. 187)....
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...Tracing the rise of ‘citizen-initiated campaigning’, she describes the emergence of a ‘more devolved or “citizen-initiated” approach to campaign organization’ (Gibson, 2015, p. 183)....
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TL;DR: The role of digital media practices in reshaping political parties and election campaigns is driven by a tension between control and interactivity, but the overall outcome for the party organizational form is highly uncertain this paper.
Abstract: The role of digital media practices in reshaping political parties and election campaigns is driven by a tension between control and interactivity, but the overall outcome for the party organizational form is highly uncertain. Recent evidence contradicts scholarship on the so-called “death” of parties and suggests instead that parties may be going through a long-term process of adaptation to postmaterial political culture. We sketch out a conceptual approach for understanding this process, which we argue is being shaped by interactions between the organizations, norms, and rules of electoral politics; postmaterial attitudes toward political engagement; and the affordances and uses of digital media. Digital media foster cultures of organizational experimentation and a party-as-movement mentality that enable many to reject norms of hierarchical discipline and habitual partisan loyalty. This context readily accommodates populist appeals and angry protest—on the right as well as the left. Substantial publics ...
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the use of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms during the 2010 general election in the UK has been analysed, and it is found that the majority of the features and features are geared towards electoral objectives and not harnessing the collective wisdom of party networks to inform policy.
Abstract: Web 2.0 has heralded a networked, participatory and conversational culture reaching beyond national borders and cultures, reshaping communicational hierarchies and thus creating a new set of communicative rules. Web 2.0 offers political actors a potentially effective means of building a relationship with activists, supporters and possibly floating voters. The cost, however, is that the interactive nature of these technologies requires some loss of control of political discourse. Election campaigning tends to be synonymous with top-down, persuasive and propaganda-style communication which aims to win the support of voters crucial for the victory of a candidate or party. While this remains as the dominant paradigm for understanding campaigns, the use of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms challenges this notion. Emerging in 2005, Web 2.0 ushered in a networked, participatory culture to be observed online with tools facilitating asynchronous or symmetrical conversations to take place within a variety of online environments. This participatory and conversational culture, like the Internet itself, reaches beyond national borders and cultures, reshaping communicational hierarchies, thus creating a new set of communicative rules. Web 2.0 applications raise significant questions for political parties and individual candidates in terms of how they might use the Internet for building relationships with activists, supporters and possibly floating voters. Through the systematic measurement of the usage of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms—embedded within or linked to—from the websites of six UK parties we analyse the use of the Internet, and in particular Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms, during the 2010 general election in the UK. We find that differing strategies emerge between parties, with some withdrawing from interactive feature use. Where Web 2.0 features are employed they are largely within discrete areas aimed at building contact with communities of supporters, but largely these are geared towards electoral objectives and not harnessing the collective wisdom of party networks to inform policy. Election campaigning tends to be synonymous with top-down, persuasive and propaganda-style communication which aims to win the support of voters crucial for the victory of a candidate or party. While this remains as the dominant paradigm for understanding campaigns, the use of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms challenges this notion. Emerging in 2005, Web 2.0 has heralded a networked, participatory culture to be observed online with tools facilitating asynchronous or symmetrical conversations to take place within a variety of online environments. This participatory and conversational culture, like the Internet itself, reaches beyond national borders and cultures, reshapes communicational hierarchies, so creating a new set of communicative rules. Web 2.0 applications raises significant questions for political parties and individual candidates in terms of how they might use the Internet for building relationships with activists, supporters and possibly floating voters. Through the systematic measurement of the usage of Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms embedded within or linked to from six party websites we analyse the use of the Internet, and in particular Web 2.0 tools, features and platforms, during the general election in the UK 2010. We find differing strategies emerge between parties, with some withdrawing from interactive feature use. Where Web 2.0 features are employed they are largely within discrete areas aimed at building contact with communities of supporters, but largely these are geared towards electoral objectives and not harnessing the collective wisdom of party networks to inform policy.
113 citations
"Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Fa..." refers background in this paper
...Rather, political activists, and especially those within parties, must consciously decide to engage with digital tools to promote a different kind of practice if lasting change is to occur (Lilleker and Jackson, 2010, p. 92)....
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