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The Evolution of Propaganda Investigating Online Electioneering in the UK General Election of 2010

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The Evolution of Propaganda Investigating Online Electioneering in the UK General Election of 2010 SEPTEMBER 2014 The Evolution of Propaganda Investigating Online Electioneering in the UK General Election of 2010 Cassian Sparkes-Vian Award: PHD Awarding Body: De Montfort University Contents Table of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Theory: Memetics, propaganda and digital communication .............................................................. 9 Methodology: Qualitative memetics and the ‘toolkit’ approach ..................................................... 13 Case Study: The 2010 UK election .................................................................................................... 14 Memetics, democracy and propaganda ........................................................................................... 16 Chapter One: Introducing Memetics .................................................................................................... 18 Memetics, mimetics and sociobiology .............................................................................................. 18 Critics and controversies ................................................................................................................... 24 The questions of location and existence .......................................................................................... 26 The ‘meme as gene’ versus ‘meme as germ’ debate ....................................................................... 30 Do memes construct vehicles? ......................................................................................................... 31 The institutional memeplex .............................................................................................................. 32 The negative connotations of the virus ............................................................................................ 34 Internet memes ................................................................................................................................ 35 Conclusion: Merging the pop-cultural and academic approaches ................................................... 38 Chapter Two: Memetics and Propaganda ............................................................................................ 41 What is propaganda? ........................................................................................................................ 42 Techniques of persuasion ................................................................................................................. 46 Memes of propaganda ...................................................................................................................... 49 Meme texts ....................................................................................................................................... 51 Beyond the text: Structural propaganda .......................................................................................... 57 Viral news and selection by structure ............................................................................................... 59 Conclusion: Design for propagation .................................................................................................. 62 Chapter Three: The Evolution of the Internet Campaign ..................................................................... 65 The USA: Early adopters of digital campaigning ............................................................................... 66 The digital divide ............................................................................................................................... 68 From cyber utopians versus cyber cynics to punctuated evolution ................................................. 71 From progress to hope: Evolving Obama.......................................................................................... 73 The 2000 and 2004 presidential races .............................................................................................. 74 1 Into Web 2.0 ..................................................................................................................................... 76 Obama's pop-cultural memes ........................................................................................................... 78 UK elections ...................................................................................................................................... 79 Social networking in elections .......................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion: Digital propaganda, losing control or hiding it? ............................................................ 84 Chapter Four: Methodology ................................................................................................................. 86 Data ................................................................................................................................................... 86 Procedure .......................................................................................................................................... 88 Framework ........................................................................................................................................ 90 The memetic methodological toolkit ................................................................................................ 92 Method ......................................................................................................................................... 92 Level of replication ........................................................................................................................ 93 Is this memeplex a vehicle? .......................................................................................................... 94 Disaggregate the memeplex ......................................................................................................... 96 Meme's eye view .......................................................................................................................... 96 What propaganda techniques are in evidence? ........................................................................... 97 Conclusion: Testing the toolkit ......................................................................................................... 98 Chapter Five: The 2010 UK General Election ........................................................................................ 99 An environment of crisis and scandal ............................................................................................. 100 The financial crisis ....................................................................................................................... 100 The expenses’ scandal................................................................................................................. 102 The parties ...................................................................................................................................... 104 The Conservatives ....................................................................................................................... 104 The Labour Party ......................................................................................................................... 106 The Liberal Democrats ................................................................................................................ 108 The leaders’ debates ....................................................................................................................... 111 Conclusion: Replication in an inhospitable environment ............................................................... 113 Chapter Six: Party Homepages ............................................................................................................ 115 Homepages: Meme, memeplex and vehicle................................................................................... 115 Homepages in detail ....................................................................................................................... 121 Labour homepages ......................................................................................................................... 121 Design of the Labour homepage ..................................................................................................... 122 The top-down horizontal synthesis ............................................................................................. 124 The ‘Word of Mouth’ campaign .................................................................................................. 125 2 Environmental drag ..................................................................................................................... 127 Conservative homepage ................................................................................................................
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