2001: Cyber Space Odyssey The internet in the UK election

Edited by Stephen Coleman 2001: Cyber Space Odyssey The internet in the UK election Edited by Stephen Coleman

Contents Page Great expectations Stephen Coleman 5 Spinning on the web E-campaigning and beyond Stephen Coleman and Nicola Hall 9 View from the parties – the Labour Party Kate McCarthy 22 View from the parties – the Conservatives Justin Jackson 26 View from the parties – the Liberal Democrats Mark Pack 29 Winning a seat in Cyber Space Candidate web sites Beccy Earnshaw 32 Was there an online public dialogue? Stephen Coleman 39 What did the internet do for first-time voters? Nicola Hall 46 A view from the States Greg Sedberry 55 Conclusions and recommendations Stephen Coleman 56

2001 Election Web Directory 57 More connections…greater expectations Andy Green, Chief Executive, BT openworld 59

The Hansard Society is grateful to BT for supporting this publication and its launch and for funding the research.

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3 Hansard Society E-Democracy Programme

“I believe that the information revolution can revitalise our democracy. The Hansard Society through its innovative electronic media programme is pioneering new ways of involving people of all ages and backgrounds in citizenship through new internet and digital technology. That can only strengthen our parliamentary democracy and I welcome it.”

Rt Hon Tony Blair, Prime Minister

Why is the Hansard Society, an independent educational charity existing to promote effective parliamentary democracy, interested in e-democracy? We are aware that there is a prevalent sense on the part of the public that Parliament is remote from them – that it is not necessarily very interested in what they have to say. This was one of the main findings from our research into public perceptions of Parliament after 10 years of cameras in the Commons. The new communication environment is characterised by the interactive nature of ICTs. This capacity to link citizens to their representatives, irrespective of distance or space, offers opportunities of strengthening the connections that constitute democratic representation. It is undoubtedly the case that efficient parliamentary business relies upon the expertise and experience of people beyond Parliament. The evidence traditionally taken by select committees is a good example of this. It is sometimes said that Parliament and Government rely too much upon ‘the usual suspects’ – ‘the great and the good’ whose knowledge is already respected. Beyond this group there are undoubtedly many others whose voices could also usefully be heard. Most modern states are currently interested in e-commerce and e-government. E-democracy is something of a junior partner alongside them and relatively under-studied. The concept of e-democracy is associated with efforts to broaden political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their representatives using ICTs. Hague and Loader, in their introduction to Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision-Making in the Information Age, explain their idea of e-democracy: ‘Strong democracy requires strong and interactive links between the state and civil society, between government and the governed… we have the prospect of national and local governments interacting with citizens via web sites, e-mail addresses and public information kiosks. We also have experiments with electronic voting, electronic voter guides, citizens juries and the like’ (p.13) The Hansard Society is interested in e-democracy as a means of making representative democracy stronger and more effective. We are piloting inclusive ways of involving citizens in the parliamentary process: linking people with relevant experience and expertise via ICTs to select committees, the scrutiny of legislation and other democratic processes. We are exploring new ways of informing representation and facilitating the broadest democratic communication. Hansard Society E-Democracy Programme

4 Stephen Coleman Great expectations be taken? claimedfore-politics?Howseriouslyshouldthey were But whatdidanyoneexpect?Whatseismicchanges heady rhetoricofthee-vanguard. roleunderminedtheexcessiveexpectationsand a of thefirstelectioninwhichinternetplayed As intheUnitedStatessixmonthsearlier,reality re-fashion thelandscapeofBritishelectoralpolitics. shocked allbutthewiseandsoberinfailingto didn’t barkandaflop,theUK’sfirst‘netelection’ Described variouslyasanon-event,thedogthat Bill Clinton, strategicadviser toPresident former Dick Morris, Programme, Programme, headofIndustrialSociety’sSociety James Crabtree, today’s televisedinterview.’ getsin notunlikewhatthereporter to eachinquiry, interviewer, gettingpersonalisedandtailoredresponses between thepressandcandidate. Theywillbethe all. Voters oninterviews willnothavetoeavesdrop no onemessage.Inpolitics,sizewilllongerfit campaigns.Therewillbe will bekeyelementsinfuture conversations Thesevirtual toget atthetruth… order andaskdetailedquestionsin will beabletoprobe conversations betweencandidatesandvoters,thevoters virtual ‘When campaignsarewagedthrough and thepoliticians.’ and willre-balancetherelationshipbetweenvoters willchangethewaypoliticsworks ‘The internet Vote.com Independent pp.114-5 , 14May2001 , • • • sets outto: thisreport qualitiesoftheinternet, transformative forthemiraculous and Rather thansearching election campaign. politicswithinthecourseofonefour-week transform politicswithoutexpectingitto isre-shaping the internet itisquitepossibleto arguethat Inshort, no sucheffect. dominated Britishpoliticsforover40years,hashad After all,themightymediumoftelevision,whichhas asurpriseordisappointment. ishardly the internet conversations initiated,seatswonorlost–becauseof virtual citizensempowered, rebalanced, relationships – The factthatpoliticshasnotbeentransformed of e-politics. forthefuture somerecommendations Offer coverage inthe2001election. toelectioncampaigningand that thenetbrought Examine theinnovationsandvalue-added features of the2001e-election. ananalysisoftheexpectations andcontext Provide to Sir PaddyAshdown,forward the righte-maillistcouldmakealldifference.’ anddefeat,having hundred votesdecidebetweenvictory shapetheresults:whereafew seats, itcould,evennow, Insomemarginal run. but it’salreadymorethanadry ‘This electionmaynotbetheUK’sfirstwiredelection, oPltc Primer VoxPolitics

5 Great expectations Great expectations

1959 revisited In 1959, Britain had its first ‘TV election’. Or, more accurately, it was the first British election campaign to be covered on TV. In 1947, there were only 15,000 TV sets in Britain – by 1950 there were 350,000, but the BBC (as the only TV broadcaster) had entered into an agreement with the Government not to cover election campaigns in case they influenced voters. By 1959, the landscape had changed in three ways: there were 11 million TV sets in Britain (following the mass purchase of sets at the time of the Coronation); there were two national TV channels, BBC and ITV (established in 1954); and, after the opening of critical TV debate during the Suez crisis and ITV’s coverage of the 1958 Rochdale by-election, broadcasters felt brave enough to cover the election campaign. The televised campaign of 1959 was regarded as a watershed in the relationship between politicians and the voters. Treneman and McQuail observed that:

‘In no other medium could one virtually sit within The e-marketing model 15 feet of a political leader and watch his mind at This model imported the methods of e-commerce to work, study his manner and moods and assess his politics. E-commerce is concerned with selling goods general qualities. Here, at last, was a medium where and services via the web. E-politics campaigners were the speaker did not have to compete with conversation concerned to sell parties, policies and politicians via and domestic activities as a voice from the background, the web. As with all marketing campaigns, the criteria in an attempt to gain the attention of the elector. The of success were measurable. Just as selling books or television screen compels attention.’ holidays on the web succeeds or fails in terms of how Television and the Political Image, p.14, 1961 many books or holidays are sold that would not otherwise have been bought, e-campaigners would In retrospect, the role of TV in the 1959 election was be judged ultimately in terms of seats won or lost, new pretty dull and far from groundbreaking. The politicians members or activists attracted to their parties, amounts did not know how to use the new medium: political of online donations or requests for information. interviews tended to be stilted, visually frozen and over-deferential; party political broadcasts resembled radio talks; politicians presented themselves to the The voter empowerment model cameras – when they remembered to do so at all – Much of what was offered online had little to do as if they were addressing a public meeting. In short, with traditional vote-seeking, but started from the most of what happened on television replicated old assumption that voters were somehow under-represented campaigning traditions from a pre-TV age. By 1964, and required strategies to fight back against the party when Labour’s young, new leader, Harold Wilson, machines and the media elite. There were four main had learned to cultivate TV opportunities – much to the elements within this model: cost of his opponent, Alec Douglas Home – television i) Online irreverence. A plethora of web sites provided started to play a pivotal role in election campaigns. It opportunities for voters to laugh at, reconstruct was arguably not until 2001 that the three main parties and humiliate the parties and politicians. These all had leaders who had grown up within and adapted sites circulated virally at a stunning speed, creating themselves to a TV-dominated democracy. a bush network of populist scoffs and sniggers, The 2001 e-campaign was 1959 all over again. unprecedented since the yellow press of the 18th Everyone knew that the net was important, but few century. This genre was to the majority of under- knew how to use it inventively. Old forms of publicity 35-year-olds who were not to vote on June 7 what were replicated within a new medium: parties and the Today programme was for the political junkies candidates set up web sites that looked rather like – it was a cultural snub to the postures and printed brochures or low-budget TV shows or ads for affectations of party politics. insurance policies. It was a campaign of borrowed ii) Tactical voting. The several web sites which offered content showcased within a glossy new medium. opportunities for electors to swap their votes with those in other constituencies were a direct attack Three models of e-campaigning upon the aggregative outcomes of most electoral In fact, there was not one e-campaign in 2001, but three choices. Claiming to provide an alternative to – each trying to hit different targets, each performing wasted votes and a mechanism for voting against different roles. a selected greater evil, tactical voting sites offered voters the chance – or, at least, the illusion – of being able to transcend the traditional barriers of

Great expectations electoral arithmetic.

6 of direct democracy,of direct representative buttostrengthen Parliamentbysome technopopulistversion not toreplace is Parliament.Theobjectivehere democratically rooted legitimate citizensandamore and lessfrustrated connected MPs,more inbetter-informed could result and represented betweenrepresentatives the relationship and communicationtechnologies (ICTs.)Strengthening adapt to,andbeinvigoratedby, thenew information democracycould waysthatparliamentary to explore wasdeveloped e-democracyprogramme The Hansard the democraticpotentialofnet. publicconfidencein designedtoinspire was hardly about crackingdownononlinechildmolesters.This policyannouncementbyLabour was adistractionary campaign intheentire totheinternet only reference consultations’ intheLiberalDemocratmanifesto, theexceptionofapassingmention‘electronic With democratic politics? citizensin couldbeusedtore-engage the internet couldusefullyhavebeentalking abouthow the parties thiswastheelectioninwhich the abstainers.Surely, only25%ofeligiblevoters–20%fewerthan votes from itsownmajorityin1997),received from 1945 (apart elected withabiggermajoritythananyothersince 55% ofunder-35-year-oldsdidnotvote.TheGovernment, right tovote–asmany62%offirst-timevotersand their One infoureligiblecitizensdidnotexercise franchise began. numbersthanatanytimesincethedemocratic greater thepollsin bystayingawayfrom to bothmainparties somecredence the electorate.OnJune7,votersprovided from the Tories asoutoftouchandincapablelearning by spinandunwillingtolisten.Labourcharacterised accusedLabourofbeingdominated The Conservatives aboutanallegedlyapatheticelectorate. of mediareports and thepeople.Thefirstweekofcampaignwasfull Parliament about thedisconnectionsbetweenparties, election tookplacewithinthecontextofamajoranxiety This isstrangerstillwhenoneconsidersthatthe2001 theelection. absence from conspicuousbyits but intheUKthismodelwaslargely debatesinelectoralpolitics, issues havegeneratedreal new economy?IntheScandinaviancountriesthese societyore-democracythe about theinformation oftheinternet, matter –havetosayaboutthefuture –oranyoneelse,forthat right? Whatdidtheparties asasocialandpoliticalphenomenoninitsown internet power. asaninstrumental Butwhataboutthe internet withutilisingthe concerned The firsttwomodelsare The e-democraticmodel iv) iii) broad canvassofbroadcasting. broad of theelectorate,traditionallyoverlookedby specificsections messagestoandfrom narrowcast ofthewebanditscapacityto nature fragmentary teachers totheelderly. the Thesesitesreflected gaystoMuslims ofvoters,rangingfrom groups Narrowcasting with othervoters. conversation, enablingvoterstoexchangeviews spacesforpublicdebateandinformal offered Conversational politics. . Several web sites targeted distinct Severalwebsitestargeted . Web ande-maillists forums misguided forseveralreasons: in the2001electionasaflashpan,Thisviewis hasbeenatendencytoseetheinternet There internet. ofthe in anexaggerateddismissalofthepoliticalrole isadangerofsuchmodestsobrietyresulting But there right. Andtheywere happened ontheinternet. byanythingthat won, lostorsignificantlyaffected Britain everbelievedthatthe2001electionwouldbe Fewin excessesofe-rhetoric. embarrassing the more United States the lessonsfrom Elections intheAgeofInternet: of thee-strategists(examinedinourearlierreport: electionof2000andthesubsequentdebacle presidential theUS hypethatpreceded The extraordinary The futureofe-politics? context ofelectoralpolitics. competitive aggressively to beadoptedwithinthemore butisunlikely indemocraticgovernance, and secrecy tospin, acounterweight The latteroffers ofpolicy.policies andengagingcitizensintheformulation betweenselling this istomisunderstandthedifference not invitingvoterstodiscusstheirpoliciesonline.But websitesfor e-democratic perspective,beratedtheparty the traditional campaigning.Somecritics,comingfrom theno-riskperspectiveof interactivity –rightlyso,from model ofelectioneeringtendedtosteerclearauthentic interactivity ofdigitalmedia.Ironically, thee-marketing bytheinherent offered the democraticopportunities democracy. apoliticalwilltoexplore Thiswillrequire • • • contemporary democracy.contemporary aspirationsof inclusive,participatory the more mediumfor isaperfect andreceivers, producers between downoldbarriers which breaks internet, events oftraditionalpolitics.The interactivityofthe people’tothestagedmedia media featuring‘real evidence tosuggestthatpeople these daysprefer TV, radiophone-instoreality From islotsof there on thenet. represented effectively thatthekeyplayersindemocraticlifeare important fillthevoid;itis accountable –wouldsurely lessdemocratically others–perhaps internet, toevacuatethe politicians orthemediawere choose touseitwhendecidinghowvote.If holidays; itisinconceivablethattheywillnotalso andbooking games, shopping,banking,learning forwork,sendingmail,playing the netincreasingly andcommunicationtool.Peopleuse information population willwanttousethenetasaconvenient Whatever happens,asignificantsectionofthe referendum. euro deliberation intheforthcoming andfacilitatingpublic information play inproviding to mayhaveakeyrole theinternet this respect, In important. election couldwellbemuchmore closelyfought orcontroversial inamore internet ofthe all electionswillbelikethisone.Therole well bedismissedasanobsoletemedium.Butnot by itsabilitytoconnectwithvotersin2001itcould beingjudged to engagetheelectorate.IfTVwere intocoveringthiselection,failedbadly resources rather dull.Eventelevision,whichputhuge and The 2001electionwasunusuallypredictable ) served to protect theUKelectionfrom toprotect served ) superficiality

7 Great expectations Great expectations

• Even if the internet in its present form is far from generation. Rather than seeking to compete with being all that e-enthusiasts claim, it will not remain traditional media for the attention of an ageing in its present form for much longer. By the time of and dwindling population of news consumers, the next general election in 2005/6, far more people e-communicators should turn their attention to will have access to and skill in using the internet. the majority for whom electoral politics has to be Web sites are likely to become faster, better re-invented before it becomes fashionable. designed and less of a novelty item. As more platforms become available for connecting to the Coming soon internet – from mobile phones and palm tops to We will not have to wait for the next general election to digital TV – e-politics will become much more evaluate the significance of e-politics in the UK. If and accessible and adapted to voters’ lifestyles. when there is a referendum on joining the euro the net will play a key role. This will be a single-issue debate, Apathy and engagement involving passionate views on each side and a The 2001 election witnessed a watershed in voter complexity of information that could be well served by disengagement. This may have been related to the the depth qualities of the net. The scope for particular circumstances of one election, but even if streamlining online communications – by not having this is so, it is consistent with a long-term loss of catch-all ‘Vote Yes’ or ‘Vote No’ web sites, but target interest or trust in the traditional democratic process sites for specific social groups – could contribute by a number of socio-demographic groups. tangibly to voters’ sense of feeling informed or uninformed. Not only did 2001 see the lowest voter turnout since 1918; perhaps more importantly it was the first election The next general election, expected in 2005 or 2006, in which it was considered ‘cool’ to disengage. This was will not simply be the UK’s second internet election, made pretty explicit on the web site of the popular but possibly the last election in which personal Big Brother programme: computers will be the main access platform to the internet. The Government’s declared aim to switch off Voter Apathy? digital TV by the end of this decade means that the THEY say apathy has gripped the country. They election after next could well be Britain’s first digital TV accuse the public of not caring. They sit in election – with all sets having interactive functions, comfortable chairs laughing at you. Well, now’s including internet access and e-mail. Arguably, the your chance to bite back and prove to the nation incorporation of e-interactivity into the traditional that the election is important and that your vote domestic sphere will be the real coming of age of the really does matter. net. In this sense, 2001 and the next election could be seen as dress rehearsals for the coming arrival of The newspapers may pander to the political parties, universally accessible e-politics. but not Big Brother. On the site today we offer you – the esteemed viewer – the chance to take part in the vital referendum. Dr Stephen Coleman Director, Hansard e-democracy programme Forget the Euro, stealth taxes and spin, today Big [email protected] Brother online is asking: Is the Big Brother Election more important than the General Election? To put your cross on the ballot paper, simply click the polls icon on the home page and make your voice heard. By registering your vote on the site before the 11th member of the house is finalised at 10:40pm tonight, you can show the world that England is still a freethinking, pro-active country that cares. We urge you to take part and show that this sleepy green- fielded nation is gripped by the freedom of choice, vis-à-vis Anne, Josh or Natasha. Our manifesto is simple. We want to prove to the bureaucrats that people will not simply lie down in quiet awe, but stand up and be counted. Remember, a vote for Big Brother is a vote for democracy and freedom. You can make a difference. June 1, 2001 If future e-campaigns – by the parties, candidates and pressure groups – can capture the playfulness and voter-centredness of the joke, game and spoof sites that abounded in 2001, the internet may well

Great expectations play a key role in politically re-energising a turned-off

8 Stephen ColemanandNicolaHall E-campaigning andbeyond Spinning ontheWeb of the internet toconnectwiththe electorateisassessed. of theinternet utilisedthepotential and theextenttowhichparties explored are majorparties e-campaigns ofthethree betweenthe Thesimilaritiesanddifferences billboards. campaigning viatelevision,radio, print,telephoneand used e-campaigningtocomplement traditional mainparties In thissectionwelookathowthe three traditionalmarketingmethods. to enhancemore PDA, WAP, digital television,onlinechatanddiscussions communications,such ase-mail,SMS, and electronic electorate). E-campaigningisaboutusingtheinternet toconsumers(the (theparty) is aboutsellingaproduct ofpoliticalmarketing.It Election campaigningisaform Howthepartiesusedweb– I. sites devotedtofirst-timevoters. will examinecandidatesites,discussionsitesand what thepublicmadeofitall.Subsequentchapters election; howthetraditionalmediawentonline;and features whichgavevotersmorecontroloverthe other ICTs;hownon-partywebsitesprovidednew we lookathowthepartiesusedtheirwebsitesand technology insearchofarealpurpose.Inthischapter sure whattodowiththem.Itwasoftenacaseof web site,thoughmanywhohadthemwerenotquite This wastheelectioninwhicheveryonehadtohavea e-politics meetse-commerce .Multimedia 1. campaign media: fouradvantagesovertraditional offers The internet Internet advantages master) campaigns andMarkPack,LiberalDemocratweb Saxton,Laboure- andAndrew master, KateMcCarthy web Party election period(JustinJackson,Conservative andafterthe webmastersbefore party with thethree websites;in-depthinterviews monitoring oftheparty isbasedondaily here The evidencepresented specifically forthisresearch. .Personalisation 2. .Interactivity 3. much lessthanthepriceofapostalmail-out. of othermediaandcandistributetextviae-mailfor combine thevisual,audio,printandvideoqualities e-mail and‘narrowcasting’. viapersonalisation ofcontent, users’ preferences to according itcan adaptdelivery groups; interest atanylevelofdepthforindividualsand information chat rooms andnewsgroups. chat rooms discussionforums, links, e-mail,bulletin boards, ofusers ispossiblevia‘clickable’ hundreds Interaction, dialogueandfeedback between monological asisthetraditional media. 1 and anationalpoll,conductedbyMORI – the internet offers thecapacityto offers theinternet – – the internet isdialogical,not the internet – – the internet provides targeted provides theinternet –

9 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

4. Unmediated – the internet gives the parties direct Party web site features access to the electorate and vice versa, without the Parties offered the following2: intervention and manipulation of the media. For political parties, this means getting a message • Public web site – Users could visit a web site to gain across to the electorate without intervention; for information and interact with the three parties. citizens this means getting information straight • Home page – All three web sites opened with from the horse’s mouth. identifying features such as party colours, logos How far did the parties capitalise on these four and promotional graphics or adverts/campaign advantages and what did the internet campaigns really ‘posters’ and links to the various sections of the site. achieve? With the exception of tactical voting – • Daily news stories – Visitors could read the considered on page 17 – there is little evidence that the campaign news headlines and top stories (which internet was a decisive influence on voting. However, were updated up to 10 times a day), with instant the success of an e-campaign can be judged on more rebuttals of stories and events throughout the than mere voting outcomes. This chapter argues that campaign. The parties could mediate information the e-campaigns were successful as far as they went; and content as they wished, highlighting certain but failed to exploit the full potential of the internet. stories or incidents and glossing over others. ‘We can ‘disintermediate’ and do not have to rely on The parties’ intentions the media to get our message out. People who are The main advantage of the internet to the parties was interested can come and find out for themselves. that it offered them a chance to address themselves All the copy on the web site is written specifically for directly to the electorate, without the intervention or the web site – why should the public have to read a interpretation of the media. When interviewed before press release when it’s not written for them?’ said the election was called, the three parties identified Conservative web master, Justin Jackson. Online different reasons for running e-campaigns. news proved a popular section of the web sites, transferring an offline delivery mechanism (leaflets • Conservative web master, Justin Jackson, identified through doors, television news) online. The the internet’s interactivity and feedback as advantages for the parties are manifold – news can important: ‘What other medium is there where be updated regularly to rebut damaging stories, you can actually listen to people and get feedback given a flattering angle, and removed when on a continual basis? It’s the whole idea of necessary. For users, the advantage is instant access ‘narrowcasting’. It’s the first time in my political to the party’s version of events, although this may lifetime that you can have an ongoing political be just as manipulated and mediated as news from dialogue with individual people about political issues.’ an alternative media source. • For Kate McCarthy of the Labour Party, the e-campaign was part of a tool-box supporting the • Join the party online – Users could join via the web party structure: ‘Anything that we are doing online site by either paying online or printing out and is to convert people into the next stage along in the posting a membership form. This option made it process.’ The web was being used to support the possible to bring membership to people’s attention party by converting people into a more active role – via prominent display on the web site. For users, urging inactive members to work actively for the this proved a simple method of joining the party, party and persuading supporters to join, donate to fitting into the e-commerce model of transacting party funds or volunteer time. The Labour Party online with which people are becoming increasingly aimed to get its site into the top 20 most viewed familiar. It worked – the Labour Party claims that as web sites during the campaign period, and claim many people joined it online as joined via the they achieved this. telephone during the election period. • For Mark Pack of the Liberal Democrats, the • Make a donation online – This transaction was internet created a level playing field where smaller, reported as being particularly successful in the US less well-funded parties could compete on equal presidential election in 2000, but was much less of a terms with the larger parties: ‘The web site will phenomenon in this election due to tighter give us another way of getting that information out restrictions on fundraising in British electoral law. – hopefully to a slightly wider group of people. If we People could donate money online without having just put it on the web site… it’s effectively a cost- to commit to being a party member. This was the free exercise.’ online delivery of a transaction that in the past had happened over the telephone. All three party e-strategists agreed that e-campaigning was just one tool alongside others. E-campaigning • Contact the party online – Users could interact with would serve a variety of purposes, some of which could the party via an online e-mail form or e-mail also be done offline and some of which could only be address. This was the main online route for done online. interactive feedback to the parties. The parties claim that they usually responded to e-mails within 24 hours, but this was not as reliable as it should have been. It is likely that some slipped through the net. (See box on page 18 about the test questions e- mailed to the parties.) Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

10 • • • • • • discussion.’ saidMarkPackoftheLiberalDemocrats. goodquality of postings–youdon’thaveavery other websites.You tendtohaveafairlylowquality successon ‘Theydon’tseemtobeagreat forum. ordiscussion achatroom offered None oftheparties allowing people to directly accessthenewssource. allowing peopletodirectly quantitiesofinformation, anddeliverlarge store anditsabilityto of thetextualityinternet other traditionalnewsmedia.Thistookadvantage on just sound-bittenextractsthatusuallyappeared people togetfullversionsofthescriptsratherthan Theseallowed appropriate. where ‘click-throughs’ andLibDemsoffered speeches, theConservatives Speeches Labour organisationsorcandidatewebsites. Democrat Youth andStudents,otherEuropean Liberal Future, suchasConservative organisations, or includedlinkstosisterparties mainparties three All organisations. web sitestogainaccessrelated Links toothersites usefulforusers. could havemadeitmore that document –thislackedtheinteractivefeatures analphabeticalcandidatelistinaWordprovided biographyofallcandidates.Labouronly short a bypostcode,whichprovided function, searchable a‘FindmyCandidate’ offered Conservatives and linktotheirwebsite(iftheyhadone).The constituency) ofallcandidates,includingabiography bynameand adatabase(searchable providing inthiscapacityby potential oftheinternet candidates. TheLiberalDemocratsbestutilisedthe abouttheir gaveonlineinformation parties All three websites. out whotheircandidatewasviatheparty Links tocandidateinformation democratic process. technological abilitythananadditiontothe ofastatementtheparties’ available wasmore Havingthese about missingelectionbroadcasts. complain little bythegeneralpublic–whorarely usedvery probably range computers.Thesewere notavailableonlower and speakers,whichare asoundcard users neededRealPlayersoftware, to downloadinavideo/audioclip.To watchthem, ElectionBroadcasts Party theirnewsagent. copyofthemanifestofrom a previously,whereas, peoplewouldhavehadtobuy inthisway ofcharge free issues wasprovided onarangeof available. Detailedpolicyinformation atyouthandbusiness,were including onesdirected site). OntheLaboursite,additionalmanifestos, languagesontheConservative available indifferent availabletodownloadonline(andwere were focusedontheirmanifestos.Themanifestos parties Policy information web site. wasnot availableontheLiberalDemocrat feature it addeda‘fun’elementtothecampaign. This priortoe-campaigningand not havebeendelivered somethingthatcould web sites.Thisiscertainly theparty andpostersfrom screensavers cartoons, Free downloads – Labour offered alistoftheweek’smain Labouroffered – Userscoulddownloadfree – Duringthecampaign – – Visitors couldusetheparty Visitors – – These were available Thesewere – Userscouldfind – • • • • not influencethevolumereceived. butcould information, particular users couldreceive contacted theparty. ofinterest, Byspecifyingareas e-mailstothosewhohadnoteven by forwarding or,check thewebsiteregularly viaviralmarketing, thein-boxofthosewhodidnot issues andreach todrawattentionspecific news, enablingparties mechanismfor delivery unmediated alternative acheapand advantageous. E-mailsprovided e-mailproved web sites.Fortheparties, ontheir and toinvitepeopletestoutnewfeatures tohighlightlatestnewsstories e-mail predominantly andtheLiberalDemocratsused The Conservatives 35,000 e-mailaddresses. Theire-maillistincludedaround e-mail address. withan records ontheparty Tony Blairtoeveryone mails from mails from e-mails,12policy-specificfoure- summary They sentout32dailye-mails,fourweekly newsstories. rally peopletovolunteer;andrebut and toelicitsupport issuesandinformation; certain peopletovote;highlight functions: toremind usede-mailsforthewidestsetof The LabourParty on theirwebsites. story linkstothefull mails outdailywith‘click-through’ sente- parties as ‘health’or‘education’.Thethree –such typesofe-mailedinformation certain request mail bulletinsoncampaignnews.Itwaspossibleto Daily e-bulletin the parties. andtemplateswithin disseminating information asuccessfulandcheapwayof extranets proved that confirmed Theparties releases. press party linestotake–includingall with suggestedparty 100documents aday– sites andpublishedaround graphics forcandidatestouseontheirownweb extranetoffered and experiences.TheConservative onwhichtheycouldexchangeviews bulletin board extranetforcouncillorsincludeda Labour Party withothermembers.The experiences toshare formemberstoe-mailintheircampaign area extranetincludedan and news.TheLabourParty ontheday’sevents voters’ questionsandreflections to material, graphics,adviceonhowtorespond members,includingdownloadablecampaign party extranet Party-only Liberal Democrats. rarely. the wasnotavailablefrom Thisfeature surprisingly that thepublicusedthisfeature wheninterviewed, Labourconfirmed, widely. materialmore disseminatedtheparty’s therefore apagewithfriendviae-mailand users toshare E-mail apagetofriend theLiberalDemocrats. available from wasnot postal votebetterknown.Thisfeature sinceitmadethepossibilityofa information, telephoning. Forvoters,thiswasimportant to vote applicationwebsite,asanalternative tothepostal allowed peopleto‘click-through’ Online applicationforapostalvote ruup4it Userscouldsignupfordailye- – andapersonalmessagefrom ? – A password-protected area for area password-protected A – Thisencouraged – Thisfeature –

11 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

The alternative election success. Perhaps the best indication of Spinon’s success was the fact that at the height of the election Chris Quigley fervour the site was hacked into and forced offline by So how was it for you? Longer than expected, an unknown cyber hacker. Interestingly, this breach interesting, exhausting, unforgettable – a lot of fun. of security came on the same day as we ran a spoof An election virgin, the 2001 general election proved story detailing government plans to introduce the one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Sat Press Control Commission – a story that took a at the helm of Spinon.co.uk, the election-based satire satirical jab at Labour’s attempts at media site, with only 22 years of life under my belt, I manipulation. Who ever doubted the effect of the observed the election process from a unique angle. internet on the election? By providing daily satirical coverage of the election, To say that Spinon had a huge impact on the election and reaching out to over 40,000 individual users, would be wrong – however, I do think that as an Spinon filled a newly-opened gap in the media experiment it proved enlightening and showed what market, and enabled me to see how the younger the future holds. Without doubt, in future elections generation were responding to the election events. political parties will send out ‘unofficial’ humorous The idea for Spinon came from America. Having games lambasting the opposition: games that will go followed the US 2000 election on the net, it was further than Labour’s rather lame Tory Tax calculator particularly evident that where serious election-based and which will be more like Spinon’s irreverent MP in web sites failed, humorous/irreverent web sites a Blender – a game which involves… well… putting succeeded. Whilst the dry politics.com and voter.com your least favourite MP in a blender and doing your faltered and lost millions of dollars, off-the-wall sites worst. Such games are more than just mindless fun – like Bonrop.net and Indecision2000 thrived. Using what they do is allow the electorate to actually these alternative American web sites as a model, and connect with MPs, albeit in a virtual way. spurred on by press reports of youth apathy and the The popularity of MP in a Blender – the fact that need to get the young involved in politics, Spinon was 35,000 people wanted to put their least favourite MP conceived and developed by rubberductions (the in a blender and do their worst – illustrates the fact multi-media production company) and fully launched that a large proportion of the electorate, especially at the beginning of April in time to cover the young people, felt/feel alienated from politics. predicted May 3 election. What attracted people to Spinon was the fact that they From the outset, we wanted Spinon to be more than could interact with politics; Spinon allowed the just a humorous site. We wanted it to be informed disaffected alienated public to Egg Prescott, jump on and, to an extent, educational. The aim was to use the William Hague’s Bandwagon, and engage in a Three full multi-media capabilities of the internet to provide Way Debate with the main party leaders – all in the irreverent but intelligent coverage of the election. comfort of their offices or bedrooms. Although on the With its e-games, animations, cartoons, text-based surface such activities seem like ‘just a bit of fun’, the comment and very own online radio channel (Spin popularity of Spinon raises some important questions Radio), Spinon was able to give a fresh spin on about the state of politics today, and the health of the politics, and reach out to an audience who might electorate. Why did people so enjoy our negative normally avoid mainstream political coverage – those portrayal of British politics? Why did people love who may be considered the ‘apathetic youth’. running over bogus asylum seekers in our Hague From Spinon’s statistics and the feedback we Goes Trucking simulator? Why did people enjoy received, it seems as though the mix between fun Egging Prescott? These are the questions that need to games and more serious satirical comment struck a be addressed by the government. In the meantime, cord with our young audience, drawing them into the Spinon will carry on undressing the government and election process. The numbers of visitors speak for pandering to the electorate’s needs. themselves: with over 100,000 visitors, 40,000 individual users and with a peak of 600 hits a second Chris Quigley is Co-founder/Editor of Spinon.co.uk at one point, it is undeniable that Spinon was a

• Internal SMS – All the parties used SMS (text The Conservatives offered a password-protected messaging) and mobile telephony as internal media centre with PDA and WAP downloads of organisational tools, as successors to using pagers. the day’s press releases as well as an SMS function: ‘You can click on a button and it will • Media centre – Labour and the Liberal Democrats SMS the press officer for you.’ explained web offered media centres with searchable press master Justin Jackson. These functions were well releases and candidate information. ‘It is a resource used by journalists. for the media. We have downloadable press releases or press conferences so you can really • Web cast press conferences – Labour and the get access to them.’ said Kate McCarthy from Conservatives web cast their daily press conferences. the Labour Party. In Labour’s case this was done via mobile telephony when on location away from London. This benefited Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

12 • Labour: • • Conservatives: • Each ofthepartiesofferedcertainuniquefunctions: widely spread across thecountry. across widely spread makingtheirmessageandnewsagendasmore by on thecampaigntrail.Italsobenefitedparties thoseoutsideLondonand particularly journalists, individualised results. truly was notdetailedenoughtoproduce Manifesto inthiselection. andwasunder-explored internet ofthe isoneofthestrengths suit users’interests policy–to personalising content–andparticularly content.Theideaof personalise internet be highlighted.Thiswasaninnovativeattemptto aFamily’sectionofthemanifestowould ‘Starting the married, recently their answers.So,ifyouwere withapersonalisedmanifestobasedon presented then andwere their socio-demographicprofile websiteabout of questionsontheConservative aset got.Usersanswered interactivity asanyparty theLiberalDemocrats. wasnotavailablefrom feature totheweb.This alternative aportable and offered apopularmethodofkeepingup-to-date PDA proved that confirmed phones orPDAs.TheConservatives totheirWAPdownloads ofnewsandotherfeatures WAP/PDA the politicians. with, to,orinteractdirectly any chancetorespond andthepublicdidnothave ontheinternet heard Thepublic’svoicewasnot anintermediary. by asked web casts,inthatthepublic’squestionswere lessinteractivethantheBBC’s In fact,thesewere phone-in orpostingaquestiontoBBCwebcast. callingaradio from –itwasnodifferent internet modeltothe to wasthetransferofabroadcast selectedbytheparty.were Allthatthisamounted suppliedbythe‘audience’,they the questionswere Although constraints ofbalanceandtimepressures. withoutthe own television-styleprogramme its to‘produce’ anopportunity party, thisprovided put thepublic’squestionstopolitician.For aninterviewer where face-to-face videorecording ministers priortothewebcast–whichcompriseda could e-mailintheirquestionsfortheshadow cabinet membersduringtheelection.Siteusers withseniorshadow web castfourliveinterviews Live webcastinterviews My Manifesto ute w eesentonpolling daytoencourage twowere further voters –focusing onchangingthelicensinglaws. A Friday nightofthecampaignto target younger One messagewassentat10.45pm onthefinal collectedmobilephonenumbers. 100,000 previously sentouttoalistofabout text messageswere website.Fourmass messages ontheLabourParty achoiceofabout15 friend’s mobilephonefrom campaign, userscouldsendatextmessageto Public useofSMS took a step in the right direction, butit took astepintherightdirection, Userscouldsignupfordaily – Thiswasasclosetogenuine – Inthelastweekof – – The Conservative site TheConservative – My • • • • • • information ofalltheparties. information policy methodofpresenting comprehensive Itwasthemostsystematicand policy areas. about41different detailed, localpolicyinformation uptofivepagesof users. Forusers,itprovided tolocalcampaignersandnon-party Government aboutachievementsoftheLabour information policy andinteractivewayofpresenting effective Fortheparty, thiswasan used thisfeature. ofthevisitorsto the site series ofissues.Onethird ona find outwhatLabourhaddoneintheirarea on aninteractivemaportypeintheirpostcodeto In Your Area andfirst-timevoters.) chapter ontheinternet unnoticed.(Seepage46for wasprobably effect their youthinitiative;formostyoungervoters,the of Parliament. Fortheparty, thiswasakeypart aboutvotingand information well asproviding as youth manifestoandenlistedcelebritysupport thelaunchof at youngervoters.Itcovered anewwebsitespecificallytargeted tocreate party Ruup4it website webmaster. Conservative wasn’tone.’saidJustinJackson, there for itwhere blindedbythetechnologytofindause sufficiently them.‘Westrategies butrejected weren’t discussedusingviralSMS The Conservatives Labour beingintouchwithyoungervoters. positive newscoverageandcultivateanimageof use ofSMSduringthecampaign,seekingtocreate thecountry.across Thiswasthemostinnovative ofthesemessages would encouragethespread say ‘thankyou.’Itwashopedthatviralmarketing sentonJune8,wasto people tovote.Thefourth, campaigners across thecountry.campaigners across Fivedigital notices sentinfrom with photographsandshort Campaign diary senior politicians. because oftimeconstraintson fruition reached site-only footagetoattractusers, butthisnever dedicatedweb Labour hadintendedtousemore couldattract peopletothesite. theparty elsewhere, footageonlinethatwasunavailable By providing thePrime Minister.video welcomemessagefrom Tony Blairmessage e-mails. forwarding people asan‘exe’filethrough addresses toanestimated200,000e-mail game wasforwarded The wayofgettingamessageacross. humorous itwasintendedasa tax plans.Fortheparty, tohighlightandridiculetheConservatives’ served in thePac-Man-styleofoldercomputergames.This cutstopublicservices userscouldpropose where Cut ‘n’Rungame or howthecalculationwasmade. littleexplanationofhowthesumsaddedup offered campaignmaterial;forthepublic,it presenting For theparty, thiswasyetanotherwayof how muchmoneytheywouldsaveunderLabour. andcalculate type inthevalueoftheirmortgages calculator Mortgage – This feature alloweduserstoclick Thisfeature – The siteincludedadailydiary, – – The Labour Party were theonly were TheLabourParty – – The web site offered agame Thewebsiteoffered – Thesiteincludedanaudio/ – – This feature allowedusersto Thisfeature –

13 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

cameras were on the campaign trail sending undoubtedly gave voters direct access to more footage to Millbank Tower for uploading. This information from the parties than would have been section aimed to get supporters motivated and to disseminated to the public in previous elections. demonstrate the ‘human’ side of the election However, very little of what was available online was campaign as experienced on the ground – it proved unique to the internet; much of it was merely the popular with activists across the country. reformatting of existing offline content. • Shop online – The site included an online shop for The internet was primarily used by the parties for the buying merchandise. This resembles most closely online delivery of previously offline marketing material. the e-commerce model of online marketing for any What was previously done on a billboard or leaflet was product (from fizzy drinks to football teams). ‘e-ified’. In general, there was a lack of connection with the voters. Interactivity was limited to ineffective e-mail Liberal Democrats: feedback channels and tentative attempts to create personalised content – such as the Conservatives’ My • Charles Kennedy web cast – The party leader Manifesto feature. Voters could not ‘answer back’ to the participated in a live web cast interview, similar to parties any more than they could before the arrival of the Conservative Party web casts. In the case of the the internet – and indeed, could respond a good deal Liberal Democrats, this offered voters the chance less than in the days of local public meetings. to see more of their leader, who is often overshadowed by coverage of the larger parties. Of the four advantages of the internet mentioned • Pop-up box – The Liberal Democrats were the only earlier in this chapter, the parties have taken advantage party to use a pop-up box: a small screen that only of the unmediated nature of the internet and, to ‘floats’ over the web site’s home page. This is some extent, its multimedia potential. They have not particularly used for ‘pushing’ content at first-time yet capitalised upon its interactivity or its visitors to the site. In this case, the box encouraged personalisation abilities. As Kate McCarthy stated, people to join the party, and was apparently ‘We won’t be [‘narrowcasting’] because we have successful – the Liberal Democrats claim that 1.5% limited resources and limited time. There are other of their current members have joined via the things for us, bigger priorities.’ internet. Boxes were widely used in the US The parties’ failure to exploit the net’s interactivity election, with considerable effect, but were rejected and ability to personalise and ‘narrowcast’ content is this time by Labour and the Conservatives for reflective of the parties’ inability to interact with the being intrusive. If pop-up boxes are over-used, they public more generally. As party membership levels tend to become intrusive and annoying. The Liberal decline and voter turnout falls, the parties must Democrats used ‘cookies’ so that the boxes did not address this question and reassess their e-campaign appear when the visitor returned to the home page. as part of a wider problem of disconnection. The • Online petitions – The Liberal Democrats were the internet is not a panacea for the problems of only party to include an online petition. This democracy, but it may serve, if its true capabilities utilised the web to allow more people to sign – but are optimised, to strengthen the connection between could equally have been done offline. parties and voters, as well as citizens and Parliament. • Leader’s web site – Charles Kennedy was the only party leader to have his own web site, separate II. Empowering the voters – from the party site. the public makes its mark Much has been made of the open, interactive and often Were the parties innovative? anarchic nature of the internet. Unlike broadcasting, it eludes centralised control mechanisms and can easily Parties stood to gain from e-campaigning far more than host a plethora of many-to-many communications. the electorate. For the parties, the internet made campaigning easier, enabling cheaper, faster, broader, Much of the literature on the development of online more efficient delivery of their messages to the communication has predicted that the internet will electorate. All the benefits of audio (radio), visual become increasingly dominated by the major offline (television) and textual (press and posters) forms institutions and interests – such as corporations, could be combined so that the parties could express governments, big parties and established media. This is themselves on their own terms, without mediation by sometimes referred to as the normalisation thesis. By traditional media. The internet allowed the parties to contrast, others have advanced a mobilisation thesis, store and present unlimited volumes of information seeing the internet as providing for an opening up of and to generate, speed-up and automate supportive the communication environment to greater activities, such as fundraising and volunteering. opportunities for traditionally excluded, marginalised or under-resourced social groups and interests. Our For those voters with access to the internet, the e- research in this election did not attempt to explore fully campaigns provided them with easier access to a the normalisation/mobilisation theories. To do so selection of party information, such as specific sections satisfactorily, one would need to have examined how of manifestos, speeches or party election broadcasts, marginal, fringe or independent candidates used ICTs retrievable at times that suited them, for as long as for campaigning and whether the relatively inexpensive they wanted, without the selective and possibly access to these new media resulted in significant pay- biased interpretation of the media. The e-campaign Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

14 nderprescott.html), ( splatgame.html), (http://images.thisislondon.com/img/news/election2001/ Other sitesenableduserstosplat MPswithanegg www.rancon.co.uk/prezza/main.html) www.sirsearchalot.com/biffa.htm (See into acontestwithananimatedJohnPrescott. onecouldpunch,bepunchedbyor enter sites where web drama inadullcampaign–gaverisetonumerous punch–anearlymomentofpolitical The Prescott among youngpeople,thatwasunmissable. ofthesesites,particularly aboutthespread fervour was a loosely baseduponelectoralthemes.There politicalimagesandnewgames ways ofreconfiguring inventive(anddestructive) known candidates,more ofwell- with linkstonewsites,funniercaricatures humour websites.Almostdailye-mailswouldarrive ofpolitical The 2001electionwitnessedamushrooming Online irreverence • • • • • the followingattitudinaltrends: in politics. Thismoodseemedtohavebeenrooted mood ofdisenchantmentwithtraditionalelectoral channelsforapublic (and non-voters)byproviding benefitedvoters without it.Thesenewopportunities wouldnothaveemerged election whichprobably andcommunicatinginthe2001 information-sharing openedsomespacesfornewkindsof internet ormobilisation,wecannotethatthe normalisation seekingtodrawanyconclusionsabout Without ofe-campaigns. and connectwithvotersasaresult theirpoliticalagendas tofurther had newopportunities parties less-resourced orwhethercandidatesfrom – onlinecampaign strong deposits operatedaparticularly candidateswhosavedtheir whether the10Green Forexample,onewouldhavewantedtolookat offs. effects onvotescast. effects oftheir interms communication strategiespurely did notchoosetovote,oneshouldjudgepolitical over40%oftheeligiblepopulation an electionwhere the possibleexceptionofonlinetacticalvoting.)Butin (with tangibleelectoraleffects seen tohaveproduced sense,noneofthesestrategiescouldbe instrumental tomaketheirfeelingsknown.Inan under-represented asstrategies ofthe served bytheinternet offered it–sothenewopportunities astheyperceived process inthepolitical The publicfeltunder-represented http://www.rubbershorts.com/spinon/games/blender/ble as shownonTV. exclusivity ofmuchpoliticaldiscourse–especially disenchantmentwiththestyleandapparent a popularfeelingthatthepublicisnot listenedto; a management; withthepoliticsofspinandstage frustration election result; ofthe aboutthepredictability frustration aboutgovernance; challenging ofallpropositions critical and institutions,accompaniedbyamore toauthority intraditionaldeference breakdown a www.panlogic.co.uk/splat_the_MP.html re-mix themin ablender re-mix punch them and and polling expert and Peter Kellnerisapoliticaljournalist ofweaponsforstudyingpublicopinion. armoury newadditiontothe pollisapowerful internet thatawell-conducted widespread sufficiently hasbecome thataccesstothe internet confirms biases that needed to be corrected, biases thatneededtobecorrected, Although therawdatacontaineddemographic 17%(47-30) was9.3%(42.0-32.7). Conservatives – 15%(45-30) On electionday, Labour’sactualleadoverthe – Gallup 11%(43-32) 11%(44-33) MORI – – Rasmussen ICM YouGov were: organisations forall The finalpublishedeve-of-electionresults nextcloseston12%. with ICM(offline) latest June 3,the OnSunday (bothonandoffline). results pre-election ofallpublished themostaccurateresults recorded –the Labour andConservative variable–thegapbetween ofthecrucial In terms conducted fortheBESbyNOPandGallup). (in parallelwiththeface-to-faceandtelephonepolls questions thanahundred more page, andanswered home viatheFreeserve attracted tothesurvey were than7,000respondents More Freeserve. Study The secondexampleisthe comparable withvoting-intentionpolls. notstrictly therefore andare election result thegeneral notdesignedtopredict these were via e-mailof1,000BBC conducted aseriesofissue-basedpollsfortheBBC twonotableexceptionstothis.ICM were There conductedsuchpolls. Even majornewsproviders thefinalelectionresult. from wildlydivergent were ofthepopulation,andtheirresults be representative as theywanted.Clearly, nosuchpollcouldclaimto abletovoteasoften were thatrespondents problem thefundamental from Most ofthesesuffered sites conductedpollsduringthecampaignperiod. accurately thananytraditionalpoll.Various web more of theracebetweenLabourandConservative itcalledtheoutcome achievement inBritain,where Bush–hasbeenfollowedby and George thephoto-finishbetweenAlGore predicted correctly poll internet aHarris the UnitedStates–where passed itsfirsttestswithflyingcolours.Successin Although stillinitsinfancy, pollinghas internet Peter Kellner internet polling The rightsandwrongsof YouGov online poll,conductedinassociationwith Sunday Business 10%Labourlead(43%-33%) – poll showingaLabourleadof11% News Online YouGov/British Election published thethen- YouGov YouGov’s users. However, poll YouGov’s data

15 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

(www.urban75.com/Punch/index.html), make them Kingston and Surbiton – where Labour cannot win – you dance would vote for Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat (www.mtv.co.uk/content/fun/games/stereo_mps/index.ht candidate, to ensure that William Hague’s candidate is ml) or play games with them (www.crouchingtony.com/ not elected. Voters from Wimbledon – where the Lib Dems and www.thebrainstrust.co.uk/yatb/). can’t win – would support Labour’s Roger Casale over Hague’s candidate. This way, both Liberal Democrat and There were political anagram sites Labour supporters can hold critical marginal (www.anagrams.net/politics), fantasy politics sites constituencies, instead of losing them to Hague’s followers. (www.fantasyelection2001.com and www.amielectableornot.com) and sites telling people Tactical voting existed long before the advent of online how to vote on the basis of online questionnaires politics. It has never been an officially sanctioned party (www.votemonkey.com and www.whodoivotefor.co.uk) policy, so channels have not existed for party supporters These sites were wholly interactive, simple to follow in different constituencies to swap votes. The web is a and amusing to share with others. Often they were perfect medium for such distant transactions. devastatingly cruel, such as the satire on the famous A- The www.tacticalvoter.net site – supported by the New team: the C-team, featuring the Tory front bench Politics Network – was inspired by the US Nader (www.guydowman.com/Images/a-team.shtml). Traders in 2000. Other tactical voting sites included What was going on here? These sites were about more www.keepthetoriesout.co.uk, www.toryfreescotland.com, than someone painting anarchist graffiti on a Town Hall tactical voting wizard wall. There were various anarchistic web sites, such as http://users.eastlink.ca/~srgl/election2001.htm, Vote Nobody (http://uk.geocities.com/votenobody/), Nun www.votebasingstoke.f25s.com and www.votedorset.org, of the Above (www.nunoftheabove.org/), the abstention set up by singer, Billy Bragg, as an attempt to oust site (www.dontvote.org.uk/), Election fraud the Conservative incumbents in three marginal (www.electionfraud2001.org.uk/) and Guilty Party Dorset constituencies. (www.guiltyparty.cc/), but these tended to be politically Voters going to tactical voting sites registered their uninfluential precisely because they were trying to names, e-mail addresses and constituencies and were make political points. Spoof sites, such as then put in touch with voters from other constituencies www.williamhague.com, www.tonyblair.co.uk, with whom they could agree to swap votes. Such swaps www.robincook.org and www.annwiddecombe.com failed or vote-trades served as strategies for beating the odds to cause the kind of confusion that parody Bush and of the first-past-the-post electoral system. The largest of Gore sites had in the US election – although there was the vote-swapping sites – www.tacticalvoter.net – one case of cyber-squatting in Wales, where the Liberal claimed to receive as many as 200,000 visitors during Democrats registered a site at www.plaid-cymru.co.uk, the election campaign and 8,153 unique pledges by clearly intending to pick up voters looking for the voters to swap their votes. Welsh nationalists. Did tactical voting, organised online, change any Overall, online humour and games successfully tapped results? In two constituencies there is strong evidence into a popular feeling about the disconnection of politics that this did happen: from people – especially young people. The parties should learn from these sites that the public (or a • In Cheadle – where www.tacticalvoter.net had significant section of the online public, at least) wants a received 47 vote-swapping pledges from voters – much more interactive use of web sites and a different the Conservative MP was ousted by a Liberal style of relating to politics. This was the public that felt Democrat majority of 33. more comfortable with Have I Got News For You than • In Dorset South, Conservative MP, Ian Bruce the News at Ten. (ironically, one of the most e-friendly Conservative MPs) was ousted by a majority of 153 votes – with Tactical voting 185 pledges received on the tactical voting web sites. In all elections voters are faced with the problem of Were vote-swapping sites legal? On the face of it, voters their one vote counting for little within the overall are quite at liberty to enter into voluntary arrangements aggregation of votes cast. Although few voters are with one another about how to cast their votes. Ian familiar with the theoretical aspects of rational choice Bruce, in Dorset South, complained to the Information theory and its conclusion that most votes cast do not Commissioner that www.votedorset.org was in determine the election results; many feel frustrated contravention of the Data Protection Act, in that it because they cannot possibly vote for the candidate of was collecting and disseminating personal data their choice with any realistic expectation of affecting without a licence. The Conservatives also filed a the result. Tactical voting is one way in which voters complaint with the Electoral Commission about the can collaborate to oust least preferred candidates. The www.stophague.com web site, claiming that if it www.stophague.com web site offered this explanation of constituted a ‘third-party’ donation of over £500, it its strategy: had to be declared as an election expense. Neither objection was upheld, but it would be surprising if TACTICAL voting is a democratic means of ensuring we did not see further wrangles in the future about that an unwanted party does not win the election by the legality of vote-swapping web sites. voting for the next strongest candidate, regardless of party affiliation. For example, if you are registered to vote in Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

16 older voters havebeenmissed.AdvocacyOnline’ssitefor otherwise highlighting aspectsoftheelectoralagendathatmight in impressive particularly siteswere Some target at Association ofTed HeathBurners promoting promoting eurosceptics sites,withConservative internal-party offactional, voters. 2001alsowitnessedtheemergence of distinctgroups of howthewebcanhelptoorganise www.makethecrosscount.com www.votesmart.org.uk www.gayvote.co.uk by theNationalUnionofTeachers, thegaysite www.zindagee.co.uk, www.education-election.com like elections.Sites infuture that maywellcometothefore trend personalised,consumer-targeted amore reflected websiteswhich community andinterest-based The 2001electionsawtheriseofanumber Customising politics centre wouldhavebeenahuge task. centre the from handlethatamountof correspondence To deepening thecommitmentofthose whoregistered. thousands ofconversationsaboutthesite, created pairing system.Thispeer-to-peer communication our contact withothervoters,through for direct engagedbytheopportunity tothesitewere Visitors votes. ofConservative effectiveness thatdiminishthe inresults will findexpression it whilethatantipathyendures proportionality, four years.Onanysystem,exceptpure whichhasnotabatedinthelast the Conservatives Those usingthesiteexhibitedanantipathytowards useful voteelsewhere. amore their ownseatasameansofpurchasing castingatacticalvotein neighbouring seat,butwere ina campaigning fortheirfirstchoiceparty even loyalties:manywere party strong very ofvote-swappershad surprisinglyhighproportion A levelofrecognition. tactical voting–anunprecedented showed thatupto41%ofvoterswouldconsider tactical campaigning.AnNOPpollinthefinalweek oftheelectoratetoconcerted the responsiveness andKingston&Surbitonshowed Dorset, Shrewsbury maintained andhotspotssuchasLudlow, South nationally, inthesystemwas switchingalready intacticalvoting wasnosystematicincrease there coverage.Although The sitegeneratedtremendous vote. oftheanti-Conservative effectiveness tomaximisethe theother’sparty supporting to‘swap’votes–each uponlineandagreed paired choice candidatewasinanunwinnableposition Party. Individualvoterswhosefirst the Conservative www.tacticalvoter.net Jason Buckley Vote-swapping online www.vote-environment.org.uk www.imperial-tories.com (www.advocacyonline.net/learn_say.jsp) theMuslimsite , and theChristian facilitated tacticalvotingagainst were interesting examples interesting were theAsianvoters’ , and theNational www.surf.to/heath. setup , – online presence. hadan offline) resolutely tabloids, whichremained newspaper(thoughnotthe andbroadsheet broadcaster major in coveringtheelectiononline.In2001,every companycalled commercial of anysophistication.TheGE97website,setupbya rananonlineelectionservice newspaper orbroadcaster media coveragemovedonline.In1997nonational This wasthefirstUKelectioninwhichtraditional III Theonlinemedia–whatwerethe all toooftenneglectedduringelectioncampaigns. publicattentiontoglobalissuesthatare job indirecting (www.oneworld.net/uk/election/index.html) Oneworld.net’s discussion forum. candidates, amanifestoforolderpeopleandwell-used The siteincludeddetailsonhowtocontactlocal andaccessibleonlinelobbying. how toconducteffective –wasamodelof incollaborationwithAgeConcern run Jason Buckleyis founder oftacticalvoter.net seats. sites twinningspecific marginal activityatalocallevelwith willbefar greater there lacking inthe2001election.Finally,sense ofurgency with theUS.Theraceislikelyto becloser, a creating fluencyand penetrationwillhavecaughtup internet electoral system.Infouryearstime, UKlevelsof the imbalanceinthe distort andfurther likely togrow –tacticalvotingledbythenetis established patterns Our impactin2001wasmainlytoconsolidate coverage. of offline independent aflowoftraffic e-mail,creating through rapidly original vote-swapsitesintheUSspread on themessagetoanewgeneration.Bycontrast, passing perreferrer withlessthanoneregistrant – low remained them tovisit.Therateofreproduction thensentane-mailinviting seven friendswhowere Friends madeuseofthe one infiveregistrants tothesite.About traffic increase campaign togreatly oftheviral disappointmentwasthefailure A discussionontotheirwebsites. of allowingfree andbelessscared theactivistsofopposingparties are sergeants thattheirbestrecruiting should recognise webmasters lifeblood oftheconversation.Party the number ofhostilecomments,butthesewere willy-nilly.to beginnewthreads Itattractedagreat andunmoderated,withvisitorsable was unstructured which This wasmaintainedonourmessageboard, limited. are when resources –particularly interaction overatop-downapproach demonstrationofthesuperiorityfacilitating a stickers anddistributedleafletsin15keyseats.Itwas people’. Activistsalsodownloadedpostersandcar suppliesofsought-after‘real providing interest, withindividualsiteusersinseatsof journalists abletouseourdatabaseconnect were level. We Many alsobecamespokespeopleforthesiteatalocal information bonuses? facility to provide e-mail addresses ofupto e-mailaddresses facility toprovide Online Magic, Vote ForMe Tell Your was unique did asuperb site

17 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

E-mail test • The Liberal Democrats were most likely to provide The three main party web sites had a feedback a personalised policy response. mechanism allowing voters to e-mail their questions • Labour was most likely to provide an and receive a personalised response. The Hansard ‘automated’ response bearing no relevance to Society tested just how interactive the parties really the question asked. were. We sent out a set of nine questions to the three main parties from a variety of separate individual e-mail addresses. They were designed to find out about Labour aspects of the parties’ policies and outlooks – • Labour’s average response time was 945.6 minutes particularly those that are not obvious from the web (over 15 hours). sites or the manifestos. The questions asked were: • Labour responded to 89% of the e-mails. 1. How does your party feel about using the internet • But 70% of these were ‘automated responses’ that more often to involve the public in policy making? did not specifically answer the questions put – 2. Is it true that most MPs don’t accept e-mails from referring enquirers instead to the party manifesto their constituents? Would you accept and reply to or the web site. them if elected? • Only one response e-mail from Labour contained 3. Do you agree with me that Britain should information pertaining directly to the question join NAFTA? asked – on the topic of free eye tests. 4. Does your party support free eye tests for all? 5. I am unemployed and would like to know Conservatives your party’s policy on enabling people to open • The Conservative response time was the fastest – bank accounts who are currently rejected by with responses averaging at 771.6 minutes the major banks? (about 13 hours). 6. What is your party’s view on stem cell research? • The Conservatives were least likely to provide any 7. Would you favour lowering the voting age to 16? response at all – replying to only 56% of e-mails. 8. Who would you regard as the best Prime Minister • However, if enquirers were lucky enough to receive of the 20th century? a response from the Conservatives it was in all 9. I am seven and when I grow up I want to become an cases related directly to the questions they asked. MP. How do I learn to do this and which party should I support? Liberal Democrats • The Liberal Democrats’ average response time at How did the parties do? 1035.3 minutes (over 17 hours) was the longest of • The Conservative Party was fastest to respond all the parties, but enquirers can expect to receive to questions. a personalised response. • The Liberal Democrats were slowest to respond. • The Lib Dems provided a response to 78% of all e-mail inquiries. The responses varied between one • Labour was the party most likely to respond word on several occasions (‘Yes’ or ‘No’) and 10,000 to questions. words (a 25-page policy document was attached to • The Conservatives were least likely to respond. one e-mail).

Thanks to the online media sites, the 2001 electorate • a guide to the key marginal constituencies; was exposed to more information – freely available and • a full list of candidates in each constituency across from several perspectives – than any generation of the UK; voters since the rise of the mass franchise. It is easy to overlook the extent to which the internet has • analyses of opinion polls as they were released; established an era of information abundance. But what • an Online 1000 panel who were surveyed on were the information bonuses for voters from the various issues throughout the campaign; online media? What could voters find online that was new and useful? • a Persuade me to vote feature, in which the public tried to urge intended non-voters to participate in Two media web sites excelled above all others in 2001: the election; BBC News Online and the Guardian Politics site. The • a Virtual Vote feature, allowing users to calculate former started life in 1996; the latter was launched just the results using an online ‘swingometer’; before the 2001 election was called. Both offered a number of key information bonuses: • an archive of recordings from BBC coverage of elections since 1945; The BBC Vote 2001 site included sections on: • links to Newsround and an If U Were Prime Minister feature in which young people could put forward • the main issues in the election and a concise, their own policies; accessible account of the main parties’ policies; Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

18 Online Features likeBBC Features coverage. broadsheet or who donotwanttobedependentonbroadcast bonusesforvoters genuineinformation can provide ml) (www.channel4.com/plus/election2001/archive/index.ht electionsite rather flashyandirreverent easily translatableintouniquevisitors.)BBC not thanhitsandpagesiteviews(whichare more But thesuccessofonlinemediasiteswasabout News Online thanthenumberofpagesviewedatBBC 50% more page views;onFridayithad15.75millionviews– closed onJune7,theBBCsiteclockedup2million often abouttheirownconstituencies.Afterthepolls – when peoplewantedimmediate,specificinformation June8 point forthesitewaselectionnightandFriday, coverage relevant toadiverse, urbanpopulation;the coverage relevant was asuperbexample ofhowtomakeelection (www.bbc.co.uk/londonlive/metropol/election/index.shtm) theBBC LondonLivesite Ireland; of thecampaignsinScotland,Wales andNorthern suchasBBC features forthemselves;and thepolltrends users tointerpret consuming tofind;accessonlinepolldataallowed andtime- thatwouldhavebeendifficult information database enableduserstoseekpoliticallyuseful C4’s ofthe‘apathy’ debate(asdid wenttotheheart really • • • • • • Guardian Interactive’s Election2001siteincluded: • • • • day ofthecampaignforBBC’s halfamillionpageviewsoneach were average, there On tobeimmenselypopular. These sitesproved BBC excellentlocalelectionsites: were In addition,there political junkies. gemsfor real ofpastelectionswere archives , were exemplary illustrationsofhowtheinternet exemplary were , rangeofdiscussionareas. a regular, webcasts; archived guidetothelocalelections; a guidetothevotingsystem; a a discussion forum, includingavarietyoftopics. discussionforum, a policies overtime; trackingMPswhohadchangedtheir feature a election posterspastandpresent; bySteveBell; election cartoons day’s events; and afictionalfloatingvoter’scommentonthe stories, afictionalcandidate’scampaigndiary oftheday’selection including apithyround-up dailye-mailnewsletter–sentto3000people a etc; married whowere Conservatives such asallMPswhowenttoOxbridgeor forlists– candidates andacapacitytosearch about constituencies, biographicalinformation users tofindMPsandcandidatesfortheir the Politics Isn’tWorking News Online the , Aristotle Guardian in lastNovember’sUSelectioncoverage. feature – a search engineenabling –asearch feature had special links to broad coverage had speciallinkstobroad esOln’ Persuade metovote News Online’s and, toanextent,Channel4’s News Online’s ); the Vote 2001 Guardian’s Aristotle Guardian’s sound andvideo Thehigh . News June 21and262001. athomebetween over 18inface-to-faceinterviews sampleof1,999adultsaged asked toarepresentative andwere MORI’s GeneralPublicOmnibusSurvey placedon MORI;thesewere commissioned from campaign? To findout,somepollquestionswere duringtheelection How didthepublicuseinternet IV Thepublic’sreaction their mark: online coverage,somenewenterprisesmade dominated mediaorganisations Although thebigoffline numbers ofpeople. accessibleandmeaningfulforsignificant direct, more old mediainwaysthathelpedtomaketheelection butallofthemsupplementedthe media orthepress, thebroadcast attemptstoreplace None ofthesewere makingthemostofinteractivitymedium. by totheelection sites succeededinconnectingpre-voters BBC • • • • • • • • How many ofthemhadaccesstotheinternet? niectzn r infcnl oelikelytovote significantlymore online citizensare US pollsaboute-politicshavetendedtofindthat serve as a networking model for future elections. as anetworkingmodelforfuture serve election site the endofcampaignCommunitiesOnlineputupan towards oftheBritishElectionSurvey; the onlinepart theelectionandusefullyhosted online pollsthroughout for newsjunkies; abonus newsletters onlatestelectioneventswhichwere had home internet access. had homeinternet votersandonly29%ofLabour Conservative 46% ofLiberalDemocratvoters,37% access thanC2DEs. thantwice aslikelytohavehomeinternet more ABC1were Members ofsocio-economicgroup at homethanfemales. access likely tohaveinternet 11%more Males were or e-mail. –suchasshopping,games interactive services Only 13%saidthattheyuseddigitaltelevisionfor 32% usedtextmessaging(SMS). 69% hadmobilephones. 33% saidthattheyhadaccesstoe-mail. access. havinghomeinternet 33% reported Newsround www.e-politix.com (www.co-democracy.org.uk) site and www.YouGov.com Guardian Learn Direct/Y-Vote Learn Guardian provided thricedailye-mail provided ran itsimpressive which could

19 Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond Spinning on the Web

than those without internet access. This was not the 5% of Labour and Lib Dem voters went to the humour case in the UK election of 2001, where 23% of and games sites, but only 3% of Conservative voters. respondents without internet access did not vote as But, interestingly, visitors to the irreverent humour sites against 25% who were online. This is explained by the were not mainly disaffected non-voters – only 1% of non- high number of young non-voters with internet access voters went there compared to 6% of those who voted. being outweighed by the high number of older voters who are least likely to be online. The only party that What kind of information were those who were had significantly more votes from online than offline online looking for? voters were the Liberal Democrats. • Over one in 10 (11%) were searching for the We then asked those respondents who did have access parties’ policies. to the internet or e-mail what they used it for during the • Almost one in 10 (9%) sought information about the election campaign: parties’ national campaigns or the candidates in • 82% of them did not use the internet or e-mail for any their constituencies. election-related activities. But almost one in five did. • 3% of respondents sought information online about • Over one in 10 (11%) said that they visited a how to vote tactically – with women being more media web site, such as BBC Online, to read likely than men to do this. about the election. We would have predicted that Liberal Democrat and • 7% used web sites or e-mail to find out information Labour voters would have been considerably more about the election, parties or candidates. interested in using the internet to find out more about • 5% sent or received e-mails about the election. tactical voting, but found that exactly the same number of respondents from each main party did this – • 4% sent or received e-mails or visited web sites with perhaps Conservatives were visiting such sites to humour or games about the election. size up the threat. Men were more likely to do most of these activities Interestingly, one in five (21%) of 18-24 year-old than women (for example, twice as many men as respondents used the internet to find out what the women visited media sites to find out about the parties’ policies were, compared with only 8% of 25-44 election), but more women than men sent or received year-olds and 12% of 55-64 year-olds. e-mails about the election. We then asked how important overall the internet and e-mail were in providing our respondents with SNP e-campaign information that helped to decide how they voted. The Scottish National Party are veterans of two e- • 6% said that it was very or fairly important; campaigns (1997 general election and 1999 Scottish • 66% said that it was not at all important. Parliament election). Their e-strategy was an integral part of their 2001 general election The internet and e-mail influenced the voting choices of campaign: twice as many Liberal Democrats (9%) as Conservatives (5%) and had much more influence upon 18-24 year-olds • www.westandforscotland.org aimed to present the (17% of whom reported that the internet was a very or SNP’s message in a new and innovative way and fairly important influence on their voting) than upon facilitate a two-way communication between the older voters, under 5% of whom reported any e- party and voters. Over 25,000 people downloaded influence upon their voting. the party manifesto during the election period and the web site was successful in recruiting a These findings point to a trend: younger voters are significant number of new members. much more interested in the internet as a route to politics than are older voters; these are the voters of the • Daily news releases were e-mailed out to party future, so e-politics is here to stay and in future members and to people who had signed up on elections this generation of voters and those following the web site. E-mails were sent out within a them will be targeted much more successfully by e- couple of hours of any event as a means of campaigners. The lesson for the euro referendum, if it keeping activists informed. happens, is that there will be many younger voters, • The web site was rich in content with over 5,000 whose votes may well be decisive, looking to the pages of information going back to 1998. Visitors internet to explain the issues to them in their own terms. who used the feedback forms to ask policy questions were given an answer within 24 hours Dr Stephen Coleman is Director of the Hansard Society or one working day. e-democracy programme. • As an integrated part of the whole campaign the web address was included on all election Nicola Hall is researcher on the e-democracy programme literature. Summing up, Russell Horn, SNP web master said: Footnotes ‘The SNP created the first political web site in the 1. Full transcriptions are held at the Hansard Society. UK and we see our web site as an essential part of 2. Some of the following items were only offered by putting across our message.’ Labour and the Conservative Parties. Spinning On The Web E-Campaigning And Beyond

20 internet/e-mail (727) internet/e-mail Base: Alladults18+withaccesstothe Q2 Thinkingabouttherecentgeneralelection Q1 Whichofthese,ifany, doyoupersonallyuse? MORI pollfindings o’ nw...... 0 Don’t know ...... 23 None ofthese ...... 13 games, shopping,bankingore-mail yourDigitalTVeg through Interactive services E-mail...... 33 ...... 19 atwork,placeofstudyorelsewhere Internet athome...... 33 Internet ...... 25 work, placeofstudyorelsewhere PC -desktoporlaptopothercomputerat ...... 40 computer athome desktoporlaptopother - PC ...... 32 SMS textmessagingonamobilephone ...... 69 Mobile phone ooiin...... 1 No opinion ...... 82 None ofthese ...... 0 Other (SPECIFY) ...... 1 Volunteered onlinetoworkforaparty orcandidate...... 0 Donated moneyonlinetoaparty humour orgamesaboutcandidates/theelection...... 4 e-mailsorvisitedwebsiteswith Sent orreceived ...... 0 abouttheelection discussion forum inalivechatorweb-based Participated ...... 2 oropinionpoll Filled outaweb-basedsurvey ...... 11 abouttheelection and read amediawebsite(e.g.BBCOnline) Visited orcandidates...... 7 about theelection,parties Used e-mailorwebsitestofindoutinformation ...... 5 e-mailsabouttheelection Sent/received you doduringthecampaign? did campaign, whichofthesethings,ifany, % % internet/e-mail (727) internet/e-mail Base: Alladults18+withaccesstothe Q3 Whichofthesethings,ifany, didyouget internet/e-mail (727) internet/e-mail Base: Alladults18+withaccesstothe and overall weretheinternet Q4 Howimportant o’ nw...... 3 Don’t know No opinion...... 13 ...... 66 Not atallimportant ...... 11 important Not very ...... 5 Fairly important ...... 1 Very important ...... 1 No opinion ...... 80 None ofthese ...... 0 Other (SPECIFY) ...... 3 How tovotetactically ...... 5 The localelections ...... 9 The candidatesinyourconstituency ...... 11 The policiesoftheparties ...... 9 campaignsnationally The parties’ during theelectioncampaign? information about,fromtheinternetore-mail helped youtodecidehowvote? e-mail inprovidingyouwithinformationthat % %

21 First Impressions View from the parties – the Labour Party Kate McCarthy

The Labour Party is a campaigning organisation. • Establish our web site as a first point of call for It is our role to fight and win elections so that we journalists and opinion formers by ensuring it is can pursue our values and policies in government. always accurate and up-to-date. We use all the tools available to us in a strategic • Generate off line news stories that communicate and integrated fashion. The internet is no different. Labour’s message. The aims of our electronic campaign were the same as the aims of the Labour Party – to win votes, The eCampaign used a variety of tools to implement to communicate our message, to recruit members our strategy. At the heart of the plan was our web site and volunteers, and to raise funds. – www.labour.org.uk – which we created as a welcoming, constantly up-to-date, interactive window Our challenge was to use the technology imaginatively into Labour’s campaign. The site supported Labour to exploit its strengths – intimacy, depth, speed, eNews, the core of our e-mail strategy, which took our interactivity, fun – to communicate our message. Once message – both policy and organising – to the desk top we had identified our general mode of communication, of subscribers. We had numerous mini web sites aimed we highlighted which audiences were particularly at different audiences and used mobile phone important to us and built their additional technology. communication requirements into our plan. We aimed to: This report will cover our general communication strategy and then focus on each of our target audiences • Use the internet to meet the needs of all our in turn. audiences by being responsive, fast, accurate, and interactive. Responsive, fast and accurate, • Mobilise and support members and activists by interactive providing a depth of resource and a link between the centre and the field. There were certain basic principles running through the eCampaign – appreciating and responding to our • Reach out to new audiences, particularly young audiences, accuracy, immediacy and interactivity. people, by being non-preachy and non-dictatorial. View from the parties – the Labour Party

22 the campaign. contactwith keptinregular subscribers were media. onourmessage withoutthefilterof information tothesiteget wantedpeopletoreturn We Party. abouttheLabour people wouldgotogetinformation We aimedtoestablishourwebsiteasthefirstplace Accurate andfast eCampaign – elementsofe-mailusefellunderthe as thepublic.Two candidates,keycampaigners,members)aswell (staff, and isusedtocommunicatewithkeystakeholders E-mail isintegraltotheLabourParty’s appliedtooure-mailstrategy.The sameprincipleswere involved. inviting peopletobecomemore membertoactivist.We tomember;from supporter were from Labourvotertovocalsupporter; solid Labour;from floatingvoterto us tothenextlevelofinvolvement–from In allofourworkweaimedtomovethoseinteractingwith viewers. forpartially-sighted approval theRNIB’s‘Bobby’ Thesitereceived message across. possible, usingclearlanguageandimagestogetour facility andsitemap,wasasviewer-friendly navigationsystem,search simple andcomprehensive awaybyheavilynegativecontent.Ithada turned showedwebsiteusersare upbeat asourresearch To thisend,thesitewasdeliberately positiveand Our messagesneededtobeaccessibleandinclusive. activistandthefloatingvoter. core beginners, thehard skillsand nothing, peoplewithadvancedinternet andthosewhoknew knew lotsabouttheLabourParty –thosewho spectrum The sitehadtocaterforabroad theywantedeasily.information had aclearpurposeforvisitingthesitetofind or sendingatextmessage),whilstenablinguserswho taken anaction(suchasleavingtheire-mailaddress, entice thecasualvisitortostayawhileandleavehaving members andactiviststhemedia.We wantedto audiences–generalpublic, site hadseveraltarget web TheLabourParty challenge istokeepthemthere. The togetthere. link,ortypedthewebsiteaddress a web sitebymistake–theyhavedeliberatelyclickedon ataparticular towebsitesusuallydonotarrive Visitors audienceneeds Responding todifferent respected ouraudienceinthisway.respected tocontactthem.Itwasessentialthatwe permission becausetheyhadnotgivenus supporters probable seriously, downlistsof andturned ‘spamming’ very and Right atthebeginningwetookdataprotection andtopeoplewhosignupontheweb site. address to memberswhohaveoptedgiveustheire-mail Labour eNews 35,000people. sending e-mailstoaround subscribers.Byelectiondaywewere withzero started inBrightonSeptember2000whenwe conference Labour eNews thevoters. e-mail bulletin,andfrom Labour eNews Labour eNews, is permission-based –itisonlysent is permission-based was born duringLabour’sannual was born a sdt nueoure-mail was usedtoensure our permission-based our permission-based modus operandi, addt n h motneo vr vote. ofevery candidate andtheimportance emphasising prioritiesandachievements oftheLabour sent localisede-mailswere thousands ofvery (constituency). Inthelastweekofcampaign, area andbyageorgeographical in eightpolicyareas weekly, They couldchoosetosignupfor e-mailsdailyor aboutthemselves. uswithinformation who provided wassentto Personalised information to interactwithLabour. visitorsopportunities calculatoralsooffered mortgage wallpaper,screensavers, videoandaudioclipsthe itallaway), (Cut ‘n’Run,BoomandBustThrowing and howtheycouldcontacttheircandidates.Games intheirconstituencies find howLabourhasdelivered visitorsthechancetoentertheirpostcodes offering pageofthesite onevery map wasalsofeatured raised significantamountsofmoney. The interactive ourincomingcalls,andwe web siteasdothrough the that asmanypeoplenowjoinandshopthrough joining,donatingorshopping.We proud office), are then becontactedindividuallybyalocalorregional would (supporters of thesite–pledgingtheirsupport singlepage every Users couldinteractwithusfrom the dailyFAQ response. thebasisof strategists ande-mailquestionsformed passedtocampaign raisedbye-mailwere concerns onthe e-mailthatwassenttous,reports every to wasputintoresponding within 48hours.Effort however personalitwas)andapersonalisedresponse wasthoughttobeautomated, immediate response immediately asourexperienceshowedthatan wassentwithin24hours(deliberatelynot response Anautomated staff. phone callsandpostbycall-centre beingdealtwithlike two generale-mailaddresses) e-mail withtensofthousandsincominge-mails(to ofthecampaignwasprobably The mostinteractivepart thempersonally.they feelthattheoutcomewillaffect likely ifvotersfeelasthoughtheycanhaveasayand ismore inthepoliticalprocess because participation We wantedthecampaigntobe interactiveandpersonal Interactive andpersonal couldalwaysfindoutmore. sothereader policy areas, FAQs releases, andrelated tospeeches,press area –butalsothatwelinkedeachpolicy policy information wehadsucharichnessof that (unliketheotherparties) such arangeofissues.We prided ourselvesonthefact voterswithdetailedpolicypositionson easily provide isnootherwayto wasn’t makingheadlinenews.There tothem,evenifit onthetopicofinterest information ofpolicy–enablinguserstofindaccurate over 80areas with ofinformation The sitehadadepthandbreadth weaknesses oftheTories. stories aboutLabouraswellhighlightingthe pagegaveustheflexibilityofusingpositive front was onthesiteasitannouncedandnews-style 24-hour-a-day viewofLabour’scampaign.Information a providing between 6:30amandmidnight–ineffect hourly duringthebusiestdaysofcampaign pagewasalwaysup-to-date.Itchanged The front eNews subscribers

23 View from the parties – the Labour Party View from the parties – the Labour Party

Mobilise and support members and activists The Labour Party is a membership organisation with around 350,000 members. Elections are won and lost by a combination of national and local campaigning. Much of what the Labour Party does centrally is communicate with and support staff and members in the constituencies. The internet is an ideal tool for that.

A resource The Labour Party web site and eNews were massive resources for Labour activists. Probably the most popular and useful feature was the interactive map that showed tangible domestic delivery in every constituency – more jobs, investment in local schools and hospitals, better deals for pensioners and families and children and so on. Local activists found this focus on local delivery an invaluable resource when creating local leaflets and newsletters and canvassing voters. the national and local activity and giving public credit to There was no better illustration of the worth of the map the hard work going on in the field. For example, on than when one of the eCampaigns team came to work pensioners’ day we focused on a silver surfer showing elated by the fact that his local Labour Party had how eNews encouraged her to get involved and how she already copied it word for word in one of their leaflets. had subsequently become an active member of her Here was proof that activists were using the web site as constituency party. a tool and using it effectively to produce materials that As part of our outreach strategy, we published a had much more detail than anything our opponents campaign diary and an exclusive account of life on were producing. John Prescott’s battlebus. We used human-interest Labour eNews was another useful resource for activists. stories of ordinary people who were helping Labour Often, eNews content was used by constituency in the election and gave their reasons why. We also members to bolster their own organising e-mails which featured small messages of support from celebrities they sent out to local activists. Some subscribers even and new photos, video vox pops and stories every day took on the responsibility of printing out the regular that told a story of how Labour was doing in various bulletins to share with activists who were not online. seats. We lent digital cameras to ministerial staff on the road and they and other campaigners e-mailed stories As well as the public area of the site, there are two and digital pictures to us every day. password protected areas, one for members and one for councillors – each is a resource and information centre for the relevant group with, for example, leaflet Reach out to new audiences templates and logos for literature. The political challenge to all parties is to increase participation in the political process. We used mini web sites with audience appropriate language and SMS (text A link between the centre and the field messaging) to communicate with young voters. It was important to keep local campaigners motivated throughout the election. We helped do this by linking At the beginning of the campaign we launched a special web site – www.ruup4it.org.uk – with the aim of invigorating young people in the democratic process. This site featured a great, non-Labour branded design with words written in a way research indicated young people wanted – i.e. non-preachy, non-dictatorial and providing a reasonable overview of the political parties and the main political issues. There was a compare and contrast page where people were asked to agree or disagree with certain statements to find out where they stood on the political barometer, a political history and links to other online political resources – including the Tory and Lib Dem sites. Other pages featured endorsements from first-time voters and celebrities, games and text message competitions where people could win prizes by voting on their favourite text message. Fifty thousand scratch cards and a similar number of flyers were distributed by Labour student groups to drive interest to the site. View from the parties – the Labour Party

24 sent a‘thankyou’message. June9we aimed atgettingoutthevote.OnSaturday anyone. Onelectiondayitself,wesenttwomessages like pollingday.last weekbefore Ourtextmessagingwas, We alsosentoutfivebulkSMSmessagesduringthe peopletovoteonelectionday.being senturging intensofthousandmessages via oursite,resulting get-out-the-vote messagestotheirfriendsandcolleagues messages.Web abletosend important sitevisitorswere text messagingfacilitythatwasfunbutcontained –afree we believewasafirstforBritishpoliticalparty what During thelastweekofcampaign,weoffered thousands ofpeople. totensof they helpedtogetLabour’smessageacross andestimate distribute ourgamesandscreensavers Wewell asmotivatingoursupporters. usede-mailto communicate Labour’smessagetonon-activistsas (featuring oneofthecampaignposters)helped and ourget-out-the-vote‘Don’tletwiggyin’e-mail game highlightingtheTories’ 20billion cutsguarantee) Fun interactivitysuchastheCut‘n’Rungame(a Labour’s messagetopotentialvoters. halfanhourorsoofcampaigningandspread do wasableto onto theircomputers.Online,asupporter friends, ortodownloadourwallpaperscreensavers encouragedtopass were Supporters butwhohadlittletimetoparticipate. supporters, We connected alsowantedtoengagethose whowere time duringtheelection. developed especiallyforLabourandusedthefirst usingexcitingmobilewebcasting technology, minister, for examplequestionandanswersessionswiththeprime alsodidlivewebcastsofothersessions– our rivals.We for 24hours.Suchopennessdistinguishedoursitefrom liveandeachwasarchived conference press watch every openness andtransparency. Voters could andjournalists intoLabour’sagendaof was webcast–fittingperfectly MillbankTower bothfrom conference, andontheroad, press During thiselection,forthefirsttime,every tool. tobeamassiveresearch proved andaudioclips.Thepolicysectiononthesite pictures anddownload immediately, releases made, getpress being speechesastheywere and manifestos,read coulddownloaddocuments thesite,journalists From briefing individuals. qualitytime team, allowingthemtospendmore ourpress off –takingalotofpressure office the press contacting before the websitetogetbasicinformation wouldvisit By theendofcampaign,journalists opinion formers firstpointofcallforjournalistsand A a vehicle to get Labour’s message into the press. Not vehicletogetLabour’smessage intothepress. a touseoureCampaign as important and itwastherefore orTVviewers small incomparisontonewspaper readers still websiteare The numbersofvisitorstoaparticular storyinitself – Different waystocommunicate message eNews , carefully controlled sowedidn’t‘spam’ controlled carefully , eNews onto their Labour Party iseCampaignsmanageratthe Kate McCarthy equipped withasophisticatedonlinestrategy. again willLabourgointoanelectionwithoutbeing valuable.Never eCampaigning willbecomeevenmore interactionandpersonalisation, withmore In thefuture inawayno other toolisable. of callforjournalists membersandactasafirstpoint mobilise andsupport newaudiences, it doeshavetheabilitytoreach traditionalcampaigning, will norshouldreplace Whileitneither tool inthewidercampaignstrategy. This electionhasshownthateCampaigningisakey events. and allbrandingatparty seniorministersspeakfrom thelectern broadcasts, election party leaflets,booklets,billboards, literature, URLisnowon overall strategyandtheLabourParty strategywasintegratedfullyinLabour’s The internet generated muchneededfunds. incoming phonecall,andsalesinouronlineshop toolasthe arecruitment become asimportant has ourmessage.Theinternet receive normally andinvolvingthosewhowouldn’t thecountry across site. We sente-mailbriefingsconnectingtheparty each spendinganaverageofaboutnineminutesonthe ofthousandsusers, 20 sitesintheUKwithhundreds campaign, weestimateourwebsitewaswithinthetop Our campaignwassuccessful.Duringtheperiodof hashighlighteditspotential. played asignificantrole, to stay. Thiselection,thefirstinwhichinternet been acceptedasausefulcampaigningtoolthatishere has tobemade,theinternet isstillprogress clear there inBritishpolitics.Whileitis electronic-campaigning asthebaptismof The 2001generalelectionserved Summary for exampleinawebsiteoftheweeksection. innon-politicalpages– were message. Oftenthearticles waytowriteaboutLabour’s adifferent journalists game –Cut‘n’Run.Ineachcase,theeCampaigngave particularly – ideas coverageforsomeofourinnovativeoutreach great policy contentonthesite).We some did howeverreceive of depthandbreadth fact thatwehadextraordinary the little mediacoverage(noone,forexample,covered surprisingly, doingreceived thebasicsofwhatwewere ruup4it ourSMSmessages,andfirst ,

25 View from the parties – the Labour Party View from the parties – the Conservatives Justin Jackson

Conservatives had two key objectives in the run up the resources to contact every household, let alone to the last election. We were listening to people and provide a personalised report on what they have to tackling the issues that matter to them. It was in this offer. Too much of the discovery process is left up to context that we tried to harness the internet. From the voter. Conservatives took a decision early on to use the outset, the project was politically led: war room new technology to do some of this work on behalf of staff first developed the system and then created the voter. This took two forms. the content. First, we developed a platform to deliver highly The internet was just one way in which we engaged pertinent news stories and campaigning information with the electorate, alongside the traditional channels: to a voter based upon his or her own interests. We face-to-face, by post, on the telephone and through learned this through explicit revelation (completing advertising and Party Election Broadcasts (PEBs). questionnaires, answering polls) or by making a ‘best Given that each might reach a slightly different guess’ based upon the voter browsing the site. audience, perhaps with slightly different concerns, I do not understand why some think this is sinister – should our communication have reflected that? The provided, that is, no attempt is made to hide content medium matters, too. You have longer to spell out your from visitors. It is the job of a political party to listen to policies on paper than on the phone. It is easier for the public, find out what issues really matter to voters people to respond to surveys online than by returning and explain how it would deliver. Personalisation simply a slip. Material on the web needs to be punchier. uses technology to discover what issues are of interest In the end, we decided – with a bit of rudimentary to a particular voter and then explain, specifically and cost-benefit analysis – to tailor our content according to clearly, what a party would do in that area. It lowers the medium itself, but not its associated demographics. the cost to the voter of uncovering relevant information We also had to consider the delicate balance between and puts no obstacles in the way of finding out consistency of message and making best use of the anything else. available medium. The internet illustrates this well. In the event, we did not activate this facility before the These days, it is difficult for any party to explain election. Consistency of message is everything: only if precisely how its policies cash out for a particular parties retain a laser-like focus on their ‘theme of the individual and his or her family. Parties barely have day’ can they hope to cut through all of that day’s View from the parties – the Conservatives

26 the website. to individuals.Thiswas,forme,asignificantaspectof tacklestheissuesthatmatter to explainhowtheparty tackle theissuesthatmattertousall,wecouldbegin Insteadofoutlining howConservatives ‘narrowcasting’. asamedium: keyadvantageoftheinternet a toharness thefirstattemptbyapoliticalparty remains My Manifesto the country. of andarea them outforavoter’sowncircumstances policiesandcashing her family–highlightingrelevant forCommonSense, Time manifesto, they allowedustodowastailortheparty’s onlydemographic.What people, asthequestionswere tolisten ofamissedopportunity cost, interms wasno takeup.There usersandincrease reassure thiswasto eveninaggregate; notrecorded were askedaseriesofquestions,theanswerstowhich were This ishowweendedupwith during acampaign–tailormaterialthatyou content thatavoter ledustoasimpleconclusion:personalise of reasoning Thisline ifheorsheisthatinterested. getting through isnoriskofthemessagenot There another policyarea. about ifavoteractivelyseeksinformation different are outsideofanelection;equally, they different Things are what wethinkaboutdefence. tovisitourwebsitethatdayandbetold inappropriate aboutitinthepapers,wouldbe and reading about healthontheTV, hearingaboutitontheradio talk watchingtheConservatives ifyouare In short, outlets. thebroadcast through avoterthatday the majorityofmessagesreaching could, anymessagetheysentwouldoftencutacross –and,ifthey effectively They cannotyet‘narrowcast’ havetobroadcast. radio ortheprintmedia,parties TV, stillgetstheirnewsfrom everyone that virtually Given political activityandgettheirmessageacross. was a crude and blunt instrument. Yet andbluntinstrument. it was acrude pulls down to theindividualandhisor My Manifesto. but donot–atleast push Voters . Central Office. into orwrote meetings upanddownthecountry for theonlinevisitor, aswellthosewhoattendedour make our We thatwetriedtoharness. wantedto feature third wasthe with whichonecaninteractontheinternet It wasalwaysmeanttobeadialogue,too.Theease out themiddleman? withthevoterandcut not engageinadialoguedirectly We smart. case.Sowhy thoughtwehadastrong are thehorse’swebsite?Voters straightfrom everything guardian.co.uk ofnews.Whygoto immediate andgenuinesource wantedvoterstouse We get awaywiththisforsolong? thinktheycould includingtheConservatives, parties, rather thancorporate,site–sowhydidthepolitical onitsconsumer, releases ofputtingpress not dream and, tothisday, Idonotunderstandwhy. Tesco would amongthepoliticalparties This wasauniqueapproach neverinthemselvesafinishedproduct. they were writtenfortheonlinevoter- anewsstory producing Yetconferences. allmeanstoanend: thesewere documents andnotestakenduringourownpress background releases, –press profession previous copy forthewebsiteanddidsousingtoolsoftheir workedfull-timeproducing journalists former Two enoughcasewithouteditorialising. strong accurately,not entirely out–thatwehada asitturned spokesman.Weanonymous party thought–perhaps commentwasattributedtoanamedor Any partisan Yet the‘yahboo’aspectofpoliticswaswhollyabsent. votes andourcopywasputtogetherwiththatinmind. straight. To besure, with technology. written Allofournewsstorieswere buthadnothingtodo oftheinternet, unique nature the againharnessed feature The mostimportant Listening toBritain or bbc.co.uk conservatives.com conservatives.com when youcanget exercise meansomething exercise was setuptowin as adirect,

27 View from the parties – the Conservatives View from the parties – the Conservatives

Our solution was the Make a Difference bar, at the top access to the net). Activists could also access lines to of every page on the site. This allowed users to register take on their mobiles and the definitive Campaign with us, keep up-to-date, send in feedback, join the Guide 2001 on their personal organisers. Not many party, make a donation and so on – in other words, get people used these services, but those that did – involved. It was important for us to provide this typically, they were out on the road with members opportunity throughout the site. These days, as the of the shadow cabinet – found them helpful. public rightly adopts a more instrumentalist approach This was not quite the sum of our activities. Colleagues to the parties – what can you do for us? – we win (or produced screensavers and wallpaper. Voters could put increasingly fail to win) their votes on the basis of what questions directly to senior members of the shadow they think we would deliver. cabinet during our live web casts, hosted by If this analysis is correct, people get involved with the Michael Dobbs. We launched e-mail campaigns and Conservatives because of what the party does, not what experimented with SMS (mobile phone text it is. They will join the party if they agree with its policy messaging) updates. on keeping the pound or the Patient’s Guarantee. They Most of our time, though, was spent making sure that will want to tell the party it has just lost the plot everything the party produced – manifestos, speeches, because of what it has said about asylum seekers. In whatever – were on the web site. If someone wanted to other words, they will want to interact as they read find out what the Conservatives were doing that day, or news stories or flick through the campaign pages. saying on a particular issue, they could. We were determined to avoid ‘ghettoising’ the opportunities for interaction. The key lessons we learned over the past 18 months are: While voters were our key visitors and listening/tackling was our mantra – we also provided • First, political strategy must determine not only the specific content for two very different audiences: the content, but also the functionality of a web site. media and our activists. • Second, approximating one-on-one dialogue with We launched a dedicated online Media Centre a few individual voters is valuable – providing it months before the election campaign. This allowed reinforces, rather than cuts across, offline accredited journalists to read current press releases, campaigns. operation notes, articles and speeches; they could also • Third, voters are smart and, by visiting a party’s search for past statements using a powerful search engine. web site, are clearly interested in what it has to say More importantly, though, our colleagues in the Senate – so tell it straight and, if you have a good case, Republican Conference reminded us that words are not why would you want to do anything else? enough. Newspapers need photographs; broadcasters Justin Jackson was project manager of conservatives.com. need sound and pictures. So we took photographs of He is a founding director of Politico’s Design, a new our own events and recorded them in broadcast-quality media agency specialising in political and media audio, making the files available for immediate assignments. download. It should be tolerable to provide broadcast- quality video within a couple of years; as it was, we He welcomes comment at:- [email protected]. could only provide low fidelity video streams of our press conferences. There remained a third audience for whom we catered: our activists, elected representatives and staff. CCO Online was launched at the Conservative Spring Forum in Harrogate and replaced the old extranet – allowing activists to access ‘lines to take’ on the day’s issues together with campaigning material, such as clip art or off-the-peg articles for local newsletters. Members of the Research Department and the Media Unit were already producing the material that needed to go on CCO Online and the Media Centre; we therefore devolved responsibility for using the content management system directly to them and integrated it into their routine. We could not do this with the main web site for the simple reason that copy did not already exist and was best produced by experienced journalists. Where possible, content was ‘repurposed’ across several platforms so people could access it from a variety of hardware. Conservatives provided access to key information – such as news stories, speeches and press releases – on both PDAs (personal digital assistants) and WAP phones (mobile phones allowing View from the parties – the Conservatives

28 Mark Pack theLiberalDemocrats View fromtheparties: information inthefirstplace. information easier –butitcould notmakepeoplewantthe Itcouldmake obtainingtheinformation information. insuch significantly thenumbersofpeople interested didnotdowastoincrease them. Whattheinternet theywanted and wewishedtogive information ofpeoplewith the keygroups way ofproviding For theLiberalDemocrats,itwas ahighlysuccessful wasdecidedlylimited. difference apathy,of widespread abilitytomakea theinternet’s evaluationisthat,againstabackground realistic more A andotherssimplyonthesegrounds. political parties of However, itwouldbeunfairtojudgetheefforts to, thepoliticalprocess. cynicismabout,andhostility have helpedtoincrease thequalityofdemocracyand, indeed,may improve failedquitespectacularlyto In thatsense,theinternet simply becausetheywerepoliticians. often indiscriminatelypokingfunatallpoliticians related usesoftheinternetwerejokesandgames– politicians andvoters,themostpopularelection- public andimprovecommunicationsbetween enthusiasts aboutusingtheinternettoinvolve armchair. Despitethepre-electionhypebyinternet the deputyprimeministerfromsafetyofyour the 2001generalelectionwasabilitytopunch Perhaps themostnotableinternetinnovationduring • • • The websitewasdesignedtoappealto: www.libdems.org.uk, The overalltoneoftheLiberalDemocrats’UKwebsite, UK website in the last week increased againbynearlythree-fold. in thelastweekincreased aboutfour-fold, and of visitorstothewebsiteincreased When thegeneralelectionwascalled,dailynumber CharlesKennedytookduringthecampaign. approach the general electionmessage–andinparticular national was designedtocomplementtheparty’s slightly serious‘whatyouseeiswhatget’approach gadgets, andpolicyratherthanhumourorgames.The ratherthantechnical with anemphasisoninformation with the party – particularly iftheylivedinanarea –particularly with theparty involvement easy wayofdrawing peopleintogreater an andmembers,thewebsiteprovided For supporters popular. particularly policypaperswere and background thefull UKmanifesto,candidatebiographies releases, team wouldnothavebeenabletocope.Press the press queriesaspossible. Otherwise, asmanyjournalists’ off UK politics,itwasessentialtousethewebsitehead numberofmediaoutletscovering theincreasing With specialised interests thosewith Floating voters–particularly Supporters/members groups Journalists/lobbyists/pressure 1 was deliberatelystraightforward, 2

29 View from the parties: the Liberal Democrats View from the parties: the Liberal Democrats

where traditional Liberal Democrat grassroots Of course, there were also some negative responses – campaigning was weak. Just as shopping over the in particular from a small minority of people who had internet is becoming an increasingly normal and forgotten that they had given the Lib Dems their e-mail popular activity, so joining a political party over the addresses and so made lurid accusations about ‘spam’, internet – rather than ringing or writing – is becoming data protection and the world ending. an increasingly important source of new members.3 The web site also provided a new range of ways for Candidate web sites people to take part in political activity and campaigning, Nearly a third of Liberal Democrat candidates had a such as sending electronic postcards to friends or local web presence,5 which made the Lib Dems the downloading wallpaper which others in their office most enthusiastic users of web sites at a local level. would see. One particular benefit of such electronic Perhaps not surprisingly, given the Liberal Democrats’ campaigning is that it allowed people to become traditional emphasis on grassroots campaigning, the involved who would otherwise find it difficult to take development of this local network of web sites was an part in traditional local campaigning for reasons such important supplement to the UK-wide, Scottish and as long working hours, transport difficulties or Welsh sites. physical infirmity. Superficially, many of the web sites appeared very For floating voters, our particular aim was to provide limited in content. Compared to the range of technical a range and depth of policy information which meant possibilities displayed on many commercial web sites, it that, whatever their specialised interest, they should is easy to dismiss them as failing to make good use of be able to find out the detailed information they the internet’s possibilities. were seeking. However, many of the sites were designed quite Many of the people who made use of this information specifically to meet a small number of basic needs and were interested in a particular policy area rather than in this did not require impressive looking technology. As politics in general, so detailed information on the issues mentioned above, two of the most common questions they wanted to find was important. candidates faced were ‘who are you?’ and ‘how do I The Lib Dem web site included comprehensive contact you?’ Very simple and small web sites can – and candidate biography information, along with contact did – answer these questions for a wider audience. details and election results. A postcode search facility One of the major changes in candidate sites in the made it easy for people to find their candidate.4 year running up to the election was the increasing These features were designed to meet the two most emphasis on providing the right policy content. common questions that come up during elections – The party’s main national themes – such as extra ‘who is my candidate?’ and ‘how can I contact them?’ investment in public services paid for by modest and For an increasing number of people, going to the sensible tax increases – were increasingly echoed on internet is the natural way to find the answers to local web sites. such questions. Supplementing the public web site was an extranet Election law (private web site) to which candidates and their Much election law is still firmly rooted in the campaign teams had access. Along with regular e-mail 19th century. There has recently been a burst of bulletins, it provided the usual range of internal modernisation and new legislation – election expense material – policy briefings, sample artwork etc – returns no longer refer to the cost of sending which all parties have distributed in the past by post. telegrams! Nonetheless, several studies of e- By the end of the campaign, the extranet and e-mail campaigning have highlighted potential problems were clearly the default sources of information for with applying existing election law to e-campaigning. most candidates. From the perspective of the Liberal Democrats, many of these concerns are misplaced. Or, more accurately, E-mail they highlight ignorance of existing election law Complementing the web site were a variety of e-mail provisions and practice. Two examples of this are the communications, including a daily news bulletin and a VoxPolitics Primer and the Hansard Society’s Guide to series of campaign updates for people who had Electoral Law and the internet, both of which raised previously signed petitions online. This national activity issues related to election expenses. ran alongside local grassroots campaigning, collection Reading one or both, the casual reader would get the of e-mail addresses and dispatch of messages. impression that these were new problems. In fact, all Perhaps the most surprising feature of the e-mail political parties have been dealing with such issues for campaign was the volume of very positive responses several years. The election expense returns from all received back from members of the public who had parties for the London Mayor and Assembly elections in been e-mailed. For some recipients, being contacted 2000 contain provisions related to internet campaigning. directly and personally by candidates was a welcome The same applies to the national election expense experience, and people appreciated the fact that returns from the 1999 European elections. In this case, candidates were making efforts to contact voters it is the political pundits and internet pioneers who are and explain why they wanted their votes. lagging several years behind the political parties. View from the parties: the Liberal Democrats

30 printed materials(e.g.e-mailsorvideotapes). forimprintsonitemsotherthan 2000 todrawuprules Act ElectionsandReferendums the PoliticalParties, for–suchasthepowergivenunder provided already smallandinsomecases would besensibleisrelatively The numberofissuesforwhichchangesinthelaw Was America therightplacetolook? online databasesforthenextgeneralelection. isasimilarshakeoutof toseeifthere interesting now beingwidelyusedbythemedia.Itwillbe smallnumberofauthoritativesources with arelatively sources over theyears,hadashakeoutofinformation have, ofelectioninformation Many othersimilarareas andpopulatetheirowndatabases. information option whichmadeiteasyforpeopletotakethis wasno‘one-click’download set ofbiographies,there Whilst theLibDemwebsitehadacomprehensive accessible forpeoplecompilingsuchdatabases. readily more have tomaketheirowninformation themselvesmay infuture politicalparties befair, To lookingatwascomprehensive. theywere not thesource not havesuchasite,ratherthanquestionwhetheror theydid local candidatemightassumethattherefore member ofthepublicwhofailedtofindasitefortheir unfairly disadvantagedcandidates.Forexample,a often ofthisinformation that theincompletenature membersofthepublic,itappearslikely from directly thefeedbackLiberalDemocrats received From own sitesandtheBBC’ssite. availableonacombinationofparties’ information slightlyrandomandincompletesubset ofthe a than tomaketheirownsitesanythingmore resources notwillingorabletoallocatesufficient –were reason wasinvolvedand–forwhatever by howmucheffort genuinelysurprised ofthesewebsiteswere organisers asifmanyofthe theoutside,itappeared From sites. the mainparties’ publishedon takingtheinformation comprehensively their datathatcouldhavebeenfilledsimplyby sites, suchasthe goodweb own granddescriptions.Evenotherwise exceptions–suchastheBBCmettheir Only rare The overallqualityofthesesiteswashighlyvariable. withtheactualqualityofdata. compared information ofthe nature claims madeforthecomprehensive but acommonthemewasthecontrastbetween alloftheseitems,andsomeonlyasubset, Some offered andlinkstolocalwebsites. biographies, electionresults databasesofcandidates,their comprehensive tohave websitesthatpromised saw numerous thegeneralelection Outside ofthepoliticalparties, Candidate information in Americafirst, asdidthesubsequentsobering upand –thehypeappeared inpolitics fitsthispattern internet anextent,theAmerican experienceofthe Britain. To ofwhatwillhappenin rightly trailedasaforetaste often are politics andAmericanuseofthe internet aboutAmerica.DevelopmentsinAmerican final word A Guardian’s 7 , had numerous gapsin hadnumerous , 6 7. For example, contact information forLynne Forexample, contactinformation 7. Clause143(6). 6. MPs 205outof639asJune6.Alltheparty’s 5. 4. All the main parties used different databasesbutall useddifferent Allthemainparties 4. CampaignManager,Internet LiberalDemocrats Mark Pack, oftargeting. wellsuitedtothissort very is –andtheinternet noticeable changeintheresult number ofvotesintherightplacescanmakeavery ofthevote.But,withfirst-past-the-post,asmall shares inmakinganoticeablechangenational internet the 2001generalelectionislimitationof electionand haveseeninboththe2000presidential we What totheresult. voters canmakeahugedifference election system.Insuchelectionsatinymarginof This istheuseofa‘winner-takes-all’,first-past-the-post manyothercountries. from America, butdifferent though,Britainissimilarto In anotherrespect, toolthaninAmerica. be alessimportant maywellalways theinternet this activityandtherefore ismuchlessneedfor machines–there party stronger However, inBritain–withitsmuch of effectiveness. e-mail,nowhasawell-establishedhistory particularly useoftheinternet, ofinternal Britain thissort scratch foreachcampaign.InboththeStatesandin from networklargely campaignteamandgrassroots a significant way. EachcandidateinAmericahastobuild Britaininone from different However, Americaisvery onpolitics. internet evaluationsoftheimpact hard-nosed more 3. Approximately 1.5% of the party’s membershipis 1.5%oftheparty’s Approximately 3. had peaksinwebsiteinterest The previous 2. inadvanceanumber TheLibDemshadpurchased 1. Footnotes were madetoadd it. were personalrequests failed toincludeituntildirect Earth early2000.However,site from the national LibDemwebsiteandher ownlocalweb & WoodHornsey wasavailableonboththe Green, Featherstone, theLiberalDemocratcandidatein orboth. e-mail address witheithertheirownwebsite,apublic internet contactable viathe were standing forre-election available hasplentyofscopeforimprovement. the postcode/constituencymatchingdatabases thequalityof – theindustry across to beaproblem constituency.postcodes inthecorrect Thisappears ratesinlocating noticeableerror from suffered June 102001. www.libdems.org.uk via now madeupofpeoplewhojoinedtheparty conferences. atthetimeofbudgetandparty occurred www.liberal-democrats.org e.g. purchased, webaddresses the alternative butnoneof of variationsonthiswebsiteaddress, than atrivialamountoftraffic. , Politicos and between January 12001and between January Guardian generatedanythingmore , election databasesall Friends ofthe

31 View from the parties: the Liberal Democrats Winning a seat in Cyber Space: candidate web sites in the 2001 general election Beccy Earnshaw

If you visited Edward Davey’s candidate web site on Each candidate web site was tested for 18 different June 6 2001, a pop-up screen would have warned style and function features: you that only 56 votes separated him from his 1. Does the candidate address the visitor directly? Conservative rival. A return visit after the election would have shown you his message of thanks for 2. Can I find out the candidate’s views on hunting the extra 15,620 voters that put a cross by his with hounds? name on election day. 3. Can I find out the candidate’s views on the single currency? To suggest that Edward Davey’s success in increasing his majority so dramatically was a result of having a 4. Can I find out the candidate’s views on a web site – even a very good web site – would be local issue? ridiculous. Parliamentary seats are not decided by 5. Does my candidate have an e-mail address? clever technology, good graphics and fast downloads. 6. Does my candidate ask me to donate money online? However, if Edward Davey’s web site was indicative of 7. Can I find out about my candidate’s his campaign as a whole – professional, well planned, parliamentary/work record? accessible and balanced between personality and policy – the reasons for his success are clear. 8. Can I find out where my candidate will be this week? It is very difficult to calculate the precise number of 9. Are there any comparisons made with candidates who developed web sites for the 2001 opposition candidates? general election campaign. There is no definitive listing and many of the sites are hard to categorise. For the 10. Can I see a picture of my candidate? purposes of this report, all of the three main-party 11. Can I find out my candidate’s marital status? candidate sites linked from the national party web 12. Can I find out how old my candidate is? pages, and those linked from independent lists of 13. Does the web site ask for my views? candidate web sites, were viewed. All sites with broken links or holding pages were discounted. Out of a total 14. Does the web site link to the national of 430 original links, 245 web sites were analysed and party web site? the results from these form the basis of this report. 15. Does the web site link to local web sites? Winning a seat in Cyber Space

32 be improved forthefuture. be improved thecandidates,whatworkedwellandcould from whatwasavailableonline 2001 electionandtoreview ofcandidatesitesinthe istoassesstherole report selectedwebsites.Thepurposeofthis masters from wasconductedwithweb seriesofe-mailinterviews A thewebsite? CanIsearch 18. CanIfindouthowcanhelpwiththecampaign? 17. ormessageboard? adiscussionforum Isthere 16. Design andcontent the heading availableintheLabourlinkssection.Under sites were Asmallnumberoflinkstocandidate any webaddresses. ontheinteractivemapdidnotinclude candidate profiles ontheLaboursite.The animprovement Both were held nocandidateinformation. siteswhich oftenAssociationorward links, thesewere andLiberalDemocratsitesdidhave the Conservative theircandidates’initiative?Whilst toadvertise proud theywouldbe websites–surely be thenationalparty ofcallwould inorienteering.Firstlogicalport degree a able tofindit–ataskthatwouldappearrequire To viewacandidatewebsiteconstituents mustfirstbe Finding yourcandidateonline The design of a web site should reflect itspurpose. The designofa web siteshouldreflect quality ofdesignandcontent. of interms Candidate websitesin2001varied greatly audioandvideo. graphics andstreamed pageswithflash tothousands ofsearchable information onepage ofbasic web sitecanbeanythingfrom A George Young’sGeorge example, Richard Allan’ssite, example, Richard which actedasbrandingfortheirwholecampaign– thinkingupmemorable slogans their webaddresses, of numberofcandidatesmadeafeature A addresses. cumbersome withmore oftenlumbered constituency siteswere CandidatepagessquattingonAssociationor formula. candidates stucktothesimple Sensibly,guessing theircandidate’swebaddress. most to webtravellersmayhaveresorted Frustrated plenty missinginaction. were election’ butwithonly160listedintotal,there listofallcandidatesitesin2001 ‘a comprehensive candidate sites: of independentsitesdidendeavourtolistlinks 2001 unlikelytogetpastthe they were techniques knowledgeable aboutsophisticatedsearch Unlessvoterswere engines wasusuallyfruitless. forcandidatesonpopularsearch Attempting tosearch the electioncampaign. page explainingthattheMP’ssitewasdownduring aholding andoftenyoureached offline listed were in.Manyofthesites few randomchallengersthrown selectfewofLabour’sincumbentcandidates,witha a during thecampaignperiod)onecouldvisitsitesof cleverly registered as cleverly registered and old articles from localnewspapers.Anumber from and oldarticles MPs’ websites www.mytownandparty.org.uk/myname www.parliamentaryelection.com www.keepingyoung.com .com, .org .com, .org (despite there beingnoMPs (despite there Allan4hallam, www.myname.co.uk and Guardian .co.uk, , and Sir which was BBC Vote boasted 1,200 visitorsontheirmostpopularday. had 25,000uniqueusersoverafourmonthperiodwith usergroup. size oftheirtarget visitornumbers–especiallyconsideringthe respectable Well-designed websitesinthe2001 campaigndidreceive forthevoter. ofinterest candidate andtheareas abalancebetweenthecampaigningneedsof reach they want.Thecontentoncandidatewebsitesshould linksanddeadendstogettheinformation broken amazeof through tospendtimetrekking prepared designing candidatewebsites.Voters willnotbe Ease ofnavigationshouldalwaysbethekeyissuewhen not likelytoencouragethevisitorreturn. – background onelongpageofwritingonabrown were lacking indepthofcontent,whileothercandidatesites highonglossandgraphics,butarguably web siteswere andDavidLammy’s StephenTwigg Michael Portillo, useofanimation. consistent layoutandrestrained thantwomouseclicks),fastdownloadtimes, no more visitor wouldbeabletogetthesectiontheywantedin (a site. Thedesigncriteriaincludedthe‘two-clickrule’ Davey’sweb finalise thedesignandcontentofEdward to designsandassessmentsbyfocusgroups prototype monthsofanalysingrequirements, It tookthree forusersofslowhomePCs. frustrating considerably tothedownloadtime,whichcanbe Graphics andanimationmaylookgoodbuttheyadd attractive totheeyebutsimplenavigate. thosewhichare The bestdesignedwebsitesare web sitewhetheritfulfilledanyusefulpurposeornot. tohavea would appearthattheobjectivewasmerely visitors.Forseveralcandidates,though,it different at elementstargeted objectives andcombineddifferent ambitiouscandidatewebsitesfulfilledseveral More passion for local football teams and it was hard toavoid passion forlocal footballteamsanditwashard abouttheir best catch.Anumberofcandidates wrote ofhis Salter’s sitehasasectiononfishing –withpictures atthedispatchbox.Similarly, role her fierce Martin from invites theuserintoaprivateworld farremoved ofhercatsand home, she pictures politicians. With praiseforshowingthehumansideof widespread ‘widdyweb’hasreceived thing. AnnWiddecombe’s candidatewebsitecanbethenextbest a therefore area; Most votersnevermeetthecandidatesstandingintheir the fullhistory. to ofresidence occupationandarea previous birth, the basicdateof the candidate.Theserangedfrom Nearly allcandidatesitesincludedabiographyof their viewonhuntingwithhounds. and51%morelikelytofindouttheiragethan currency marital statusthantheiropinionsontheEuropeansingle You were20%morelikelytofindoutacandidate’s thecandidate. welcomemessagefrom a ofsitesincluded percentage greater a voter –however, tothe ofthecandidatetalkingdirectly the impression writteninthefirstperson,giving 22% ofthesiteswere Only testedforthisreport. candidate sitesthatwere wasawidevariationinthefocusof245 There Personality vpolicy www.cheadlelabour.org.uk

33 Winning a seat in Cyber Space Winning a seat in Cyber Space

pictures of the candidate at home with their families. opinions on, for example, how the local museum should be paid for (Wansbeck Liberal Democrats). The problem with many of the candidate sites was not that they were personality orientated but that the level Chris Shaw, Conservative candidate for Leicester West, of detail about themselves was not matched by the ran an online questionnaire about which local candidate information about their policies. had the best web site. Voters were asked ‘whose web site looks most professional, whose offers the most It would be impossible to list a candidate’s view on interactivity and whose web site is most informative?’ every issue but some candidates successfully tackled a The options given were Chris Shaw, Patricia Hewitt or a range of national and local policy areas, arming the nameless Liberal Democrat. One day before the voter with enough information to make an informed election the nameless Liberal Democrat was winning choice. ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ sections gave convincingly on all counts! visitors the benefit of other people’s initiative in raising issues. From Lynne Jones’ site (candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak) you could ascertain her views Message boards on topics as diverse as high hedges and transexualism. 9% of candidate sites included a discussion forum Many candidates devised mini manifestos or personal or message board. These brave attempts by a few pledges for their web sites summarising their views on candidates to encourage debate among voters and the major issues. These were useful for voters to assess harness the interactivity of the web generally failed to the candidates’ political priorities. inspire anyone but their critics. Most of the discussion boards had no postings at all, even from the candidate themselves; other were victims of the solitary post Features of candidate e-campaigns announcing how exciting and interesting the debate on the site would be. The risk for candidates was their Interactivity and innovation inability to ensure that discussion participants would be Replicating campaign posters and press releases online supportive of them. As the career advice on one misses the unique advantages of new media over old. incumbent candidate’s message board shows: ‘Hello, I The effective candidate e-campaigns exploited the was wondering what career you would pursue after the added value of the web – interactivity. general election? Will you be looking for a high profile job in the city to compensate for your four years of mediocrity During the 2001 election, interactivity on candidate and anonymity at Westminster?’ sites took a range of forms including search options, message boards and online surveys. Downloadables Printing and distributing leaflets and posters is costly to Feedback forms campaign budgets. Web sites allow interested voters to 36% of the candidate sites requested feedback from the collect election literature themselves at their own cost. visitor. On some sites the queries were displayed in a E-leaflets and posters that could be downloaded by the question and answer format – for others the individual visitor and then either printed off or e-mailed around as responses were e-mailed out. The questions asked on an attachment enabled the visitor to buy into the the sites covered all the controversial issues from ‘what campaign and take the message away with them at no is your view on the single currency?’ to ‘who is your extra financial or time cost to the campaign. favourite football team?’ and if you e-mailed one NW Norfolk candidate you were guaranteed a response Future campaigns are likely to extend the use of down- within 24 hours. The web therefore offered an loadable material and include many more downloadable opportunity for voters to question candidates directly, games and screensavers on candidate sites. only possible in the past if you were behind one of the doors the candidate knocked on during the campaign. Web casts and streamed video But the web also offers anonymity which means that UK election law prevents any individual candidate the questioner cannot be certain that the response is screening his or her own election broadcasts, but the from the candidate themselves and, unlike face-to-face same rule does not apply on the web. Howard Dawber’s questioning, the candidate has time to prepare a full Cheadle – the Movie; Robert Forsdyke, Greenwich and answer or can choose to ignore the question altogether. Woolwich Conservative candidate’s streamed video and A couple of candidates seemed to miss the point of Duncan Hames, Liberal Democrat candidate in interactivity: ‘if you want to know more about me, Watford’s personal web cast, were all attempts by e-mail here’ was the inviting option for feedback on one candidates to use multimedia to enrich their web sites. candidate web site and another asked voters to contact Whilst the videos were hampered by poor picture and him, not with their questions or views on policy, but sound quality online, they added an extra dimension to with ‘messages of support’. Despite this, feedback the site and left a lasting impression with the visitor. forms were a positive addition to the 2001 campaign ‘I have now spoken with many Watford residents on their doorsteps over the past weeks and months, but Online surveys often people are not in when we call. Residents can Inspired by the online polling pioneered by political now meet me online, by viewing a personal web cast web sites such as YouGov.com, some candidates from me via this web site.’ Duncan Hames, www.watfordlibdems.org.uk

Winning a seat in Cyber Space included polls and surveys on their site asking visitors’

34 votes in marginal seats to block Conservative candidates. seatstoblockConservative votes inmarginal site aimedatpairing upLabourandLiberalDemocrat linked towww.tacticalvoter.net –thevote swappingweb At least10LiberalDemocratsand oneLabourcandidate candidate does’! the webcastingofeverything hour ‘BigBrother-style 24 theDawberLabourcampaignhopestooffer around, Nexttime it wouldhavecostan‘absolutefortune’. doors videotape forthisnumberandposteditthrough a manager commentedthatiftheyhadproduced Dawber’se-campaigns people,Howard hundred Cheadle –theMovie candidates linkedtothe ManyConservative of members’interests. in theregister Parliament. Onecandidatelinked totheirrival’sentry Hansard facilityonthe site. IncumbentMPslinkedtothesearch anotherwayofenrichingthecontent ofthe Links are sites. general localinformation newspapers and local websites,suchasregional their website.44%linkedto sitefrom national party 82%ofcandidateslinkedto their views andinterests. thecandidate’s ofthecandidateorrepresent supportive acommonaim,are site toothersitesthatshare Web peoplewhoaccessthecandidate linkscandirect Links orfamilycircumstances. profession street, specificallytotheir personalised e-mailsreferring elections,votersshouldexpecttoreceive In future withoutraisingtempers. awareness votersandraise links backtothewebsitewillremind ofthecampaignnewswith campaign eventorround-up e-mailshighlightinga small numberoftargeted movewillnotbewelcomed.A the candidate’severy Fivee-mailsadaytracking callcharges). (in internet it maybepayingtoreceive junk mail,astherecipient Unsolicited e-mailisviewedbymanyasworsethan voters up-to-dateonthelatestnews. events,canvassingopinionandkeeping particular around upsupport fordrumming ongoing resource activistshandle.Thelistwillbean sheet thatparty petition,membershipapplicationandsign-in survey, shouldbeincludedasafieldonevery E-mail addresses managed mailinglist. well- onalarge, e-mailcampaignrelies effective people forlessthanthecostofafirstclassstamp.An home orworkandane-mailcanbesenttothousandsof UKadultsnowhaveaccesstoe-mailat Many more ofthewebsite. tospecificareas be directed can including hyperlinksinthemessage,recipient sent straightintoapotentialvoter’sinboxand,by e-mailcanbe peopletovisitit,whereas site requires toolforanye-campaigner. Aweb the mostimportant updatesonthelocalcampaign.E-mailis visitor regular the onafewsites,offering mail sign-upboxesfeature E- contact thecandidateand/ortheircampaignstaff. to 89% ofthecandidatesiteslistedane-mailaddress E-mail site so visitors could check their record in site sovisitorscouldchecktheirrecord was downloadedbyseveral Keep thePound web site. not updatedregularly. ifthesesectionsare backfire campaign information latestnewsand campaign. Anyattemptstoprovide after thefirstfewdaysof been quicklyforgotten tohave up-to-date. Anumberoftheweb sitesappeared Candidate websitesshouldbeeasily manageableand visits. future abletopublicise andmotivatedwere proactive keeping thediariesup-to-date,candidateslooked thecampaigntrail.By from andpictures reports days ofthecampaignandlotscandidatesincluded hewouldbe ondifferent visitorsofwhere informing hadamoving‘tickertape’ CliftonBrown, Geoffrey candidate, The websiteofCotswolds’Conservative candidate wouldbeatanytimeduringagivenweek. the visitorsofwhere web sitesinthisstudyinforming withonly17%ofthecandidate mainly retrospective candidate websitesanalysed.However, theywere ofthe popularfeature a Campaign diarieswere Campaign diaries We ahead ofthegame.’ were fornexttime. Many lessonshavebeenlearned electionrevolution. totheinternet gentlestart a thaninthiselection.Thiswas inthefuture more goingtobeimmense,probably advantages are ‘The tohisre-election: make adifference Key believes thathavingawebsitedid Robert • • web site Key’s theelectionwascalled,Robert Before www.robertkey.com Case study is important tovote. is important section aimedatfirst-timevotersexplainingwhyit listofpublicmeetingsandcontactdetails,a a workinthelocalarea, detailed evidenceofRobert’s onnationalandlocalissues, policy information and aspecialelectionsitewasaddedcontaining When theelectionwascalled,sitearchived section forresidents. entry constituency –includingpostcodepassword Keyandthe aboutRobert range ofinformation avast length of14minutes.Thewebsiteprovided unique visitorsoveramonthforanaveragevisit • • via thewebsite. fewactuallygavefeedback user visitsbutvery 1,241unique In total,thewebsitereceived doorstep) and19publicmeetings. traditional canvassing(bytelephoneand The e-campaignraninconjunctionwith public meetings. thattwiceas The electionarithmeticproved to specificenquiries–averagingataboutfiveaday. e-mailedinresponse About 150constituentswere many peoplevisitedthewebsiteaswentto www.robertkey.com received around 752 around received

35 Winning a seat in Cyber Space Winning a seat in Cyber Space

Humour ‘MPs, upon becoming candidates, must remove all An indicator to the success of a web site is how long reference to ‘MP’ from web sites which they control… people spend on it. Sir George Young’s, Howard MPs would be justified in retaining reference to ‘MP’ Dawber’s and Jackie Pearcey’s web sites offered light in archived files, press releases, or newspaper articles relief from the campaign pages in the form of on their web sites if the references to their being an jokes/humour sections. These sections appeal to younger MP were correct at the time at which the pieces people and tempted visitors to stay on the site after they were written.’ had found the information they were looking for. Whilst this advice was heeded by the majority of incumbent candidates, there were at least 12 exceptions Getting caught in the web – including one senior cabinet minister. It is impossible to argue that these breaches represented a serious risk The lack of campaign web sites in the 2001 election to a fair election, but the complacency of these may be attributed to over-cautious candidates. Despite candidates reflects the status of the web in their the pitifully low amount of hits on most candidate web campaigns. It is unlikely that leaflets, stickers and sites, local journalists will have scoured over the site posters would slip by unnoticed in this way. eager for any error, break from the party line or slip-up they could find. It is not surprising that Millbank The newly formed Electoral Commission is likely to be advised all Labour candidates to link to the national considering the issues relating to e-campaigning before party site for policy information and it is perhaps for the next election and with more candidates likely to be this reason that it was so difficult to find a Labour online clearer guidelines may be necessary. candidate’s view on anything much from their personal web site. Publicity and the media Conservative candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston, In the months before the 2001 election, there was a Nigel Hatislow, hit the news in January when Tony great deal of discussion in both the online and offline Blair quoted his site in Prime Minister’s Questions. media concerning the role the internet would play in Describing his party as ‘a lost cause’ and suggesting the election. Journalists like writing about e-related that under the Labour Government, ‘We’ve never had campaign stories and this gave media-aware candidates it so good, people are prosperous, unemployment is and campaigners a great opportunity to grasp column falling, there’s nothing much to worry about’, did little inches. Local newspapers carried stories about to endear him to Conservative Central Office or the candidate web site launches and candidates who could voters of Edgbaston. claim an online first – for example Howard Dawber’s Many sites carried hits clocks – unwise when in some candidate election web cast – were covered in the cases the number of visitors had failed to rise above national press. Some of the candidate web sites were double figures. Repeatedly, candidate web sites carried able to create stories, e-mail them out to the press, misspellings, broken links and ‘floating graphics’. It is archive the press release and then headline any easy to criticise the quality of candidate sites: in the subsequent articles on their latest news section: a perfect main they were amateurish and lacking in good design; example of creating and reporting their own story. but many of the sites were developed by helpful party Press rooms – areas of the site containing pictures, workers with little or no web experience and put stories and campaign information specifically for the together on a shoe string. media – were a feature of a few campaign web sites, One way of ensuring a general standard for candidate such as the Newbury Conservative’s www.wbca.org.uk. sites is for them all to follow a set formula. The Labour Digital pictures could be uploaded and available for the Party offered ‘a web in a box’ package at £250 for its press within minutes of an event or photocall. candidates – an economical, foolproof means of Unlike e-mail, web sites are a ‘pull’ rather than a ‘push’ creating a web site. There is a danger, however, media – having built a site there is no guarantee that that while the basic quality of sites would rise, the anyone will visit it. Publicity related to the site is vital originality, innovation and personality of many to ensure that it is used and gives a positive message candidate sites would be lost. The candidate web site about the candidate’s efforts to connect with voters. would become an extension of the national e-campaign – with little opportunity to tailor the site to the interests An e-campaign should be fully integrated with the of local voters or the candidates themselves. traditional campaign. In the US, candidate web site addresses were displayed on every billboard, leaflet and podium of the campaign. An e-campaign will not Legal issues succeed as a self-contained activity – it should be used The activities of candidates during any election to complement and add value to the offline campaign. campaign are bound by the Representation of the ‘We had the web address on absolutely everything we put People Act, impacting upon their spending and media out… stories on the web site and ‘e-news’ drove people exposure. The law is clear that upon dissolution of towards other events such as hustings and campaign Parliament all MPs become candidates and are meetings. Using our campaign diary to say how much prohibited from referring to themselves as ‘MP’ on work we were doing was designed to demoralise our any campaign literature. The Hansard Society’s opposition who we knew were accessing the site.’ publication Electoral Law and the Internet – some issues considered stated that: Mark Dawber, Howard Dawber campaign Winning a seat in Cyber Space

36 The evidence from the 2001 election would suggest • Firstly, the US has higher levels of internet that in candidates’ online campaigning the UK lags penetration than the UK: 47.9% of the population far behind the US. During the US elections in 2000, compared to 31.9% in the UK. three quarters of senate candidates and well over • Secondly, the geographical area represented, half of congress candidates developed campaign web especially by senators, is huge compared to a UK sites. However, there is undoubtedly a greater constituency, so the web is more necessary as a incentive for a US senate or congress candidate to tool to connect with voters across vast distances invest in online campaigning. and acts as virtual campaign headquarters for voters in areas remote from the state capital.

Case Study ‘My inclination is, if the volume is fairly low, to go for personalised e-mails rather than going for mass www.Allan4Hallam.org.uk mailings using one of those commercial mail tools. Richard Allan – the incumbent Liberal Democrat I’m just interested to see how these things work and candidate for Sheffield Hallam – used e-campaigning what level of response we get.’ as one tool in his re-election campaign. He Richard Allan MP, March 2001. successfully raised his majority with a 4.1% swing. He received on average three personal e-mails He designed and built his own web site and ran an per day and communicated with 200 people e-mail campaign. during the course of the campaign. E-mails were replied to within two days and usually contained Web site a ‘click-through’ to the main party web site for policy queries. www.Allan4Hallam.co.uk performed the following functions: • Other e-mails – Richard Allan wrote content for other e-mailing lists sent out during the election • Information resource – Contained contact details, campaign from non-party sources. For example, polling results from 1997, links to Liberal an e-mail to all students at the university about Democrat policy pages and the manifesto. On a mini hustings taking place and one about average, throughout the campaign, about 60 pages e-technologies for an IT mailing list that was of the web site were viewed per day. This appears distributed during the campaign period. quite a small figure – but within the localised context of its audience it is more significant. Successes and failures • Feedback mechanism – People could pledge The web site was less successful than the e-mailing support and offer help via an e-mail form on the strategy. It proved difficult to raise awareness of web site. About 20 people used this facility. and direct people to it. The e-mailing strategy was successful and cost effective. Only 1% of people E-mail asked to be ‘un-subscribed’ from each of the E-mail was used in the following ways: e-mailings. A further 1 or 2% e-mailed Richard with positive feedback after these e-mails. The content Mass e-mailing – Three e-mails were sent out to • and regularity were pitched well – they did not about 400-500 e-mail addresses, collected via the bombard people and contained a ‘readable’ web site, from surveys and questionnaires in the amount of relevant information constituency and from lists of supporters and members of the party in the area. This is a The personal e-mail strategy was the most important substantial e-mail list for one constituency. The strand for Richard’s campaign. Responding to three e-mails were: people’s e-mails promptly and with interesting, friendly, and useful content was appreciated by (1) To announce that Richard Allan was standing constituents. He built up qualitative contacts via e- and to launch the campaign. It included a link mail with around 200 people, using personal e-mail to the Lib Dem manifesto on the main party as an excellent method to build support, strengthen web site. existing supporters and galvanise people into (2) On the final weekend of the campaign to campaigning action. answer election FAQs about polling procedure. For Hallam constituents, this meant closer connection and interactivity with their candidate – the ability to (3) On the eve of polling to remind people to go ask questions and receive prompt answers. For the and vote. candidate, it provided a means to connect closely T`he e-mails were contained to one screen’s worth with hundreds of constituents, provide personalised of text. No more than three e-mails were sent so responses to particular questions and build up a people did not feel swamped with information – support base. they were encouraged to e-mail personally if they wished to have a more sustained dialogue. For Richard Allan MP the e-campaign made a clear addition and enhancement to his • Personalised e-mails – Richard Allan answered re-election campaign. constituent’s e-mails throughout the

election campaign. Winning a seat in Cyber Space

37 Winning a seat in Cyber Space

• Thirdly, senators are elected every two years, so Candidate e-campaign tips they are constantly campaigning. • Fourthly, US candidates’ campaigns are far less Do party-centered, and the US parties are far less • Recruit a volunteer web master with web organised and significant than the UK parties. experience and knowledge of politics. A good • Finally, the benefits of an online campaign to a US starting place would be university and college candidate are more tangible and easily quantified. computing courses where students may be looking UK electoral law strictly limits the amount of money for CV enhancing opportunities. a candidate can raise for the purposes of their • Take responsibility for checking all editorial campaign; in the US campaign, web sites were used copy personally. primarily for fundraising and the success of the web • Tailor the web site to the constituency – use local site was assessed by how many dollars were references and tackle local issues. pledged online. • Brand the web site (with colour scheme, logos One of the main reasons stated for the decline in voter and slogans) and use this branding across turnout in the UK in 2001 was the public’s distrust of campaign material the party machine and the lack of definition between the parties. Dedicated web sites gave candidates an • Advertise your web address on anything unmediated and targeted opportunity to convey their and everything. plans for the local area, past achievements in relation • Include a question and answer section. to the constituency and personality. They could also • Have sections of the web site aimed at different compare their stance on issues directly with the demographics – first-time voters, pensioners etc. opposition candidates – these could include national policy but, often, more important to the voter is what the • Use e-mail mailing lists to co-ordinate supporters. candidate will do about local services and issues which may not be covered in the national campaign. With Don’t membership of political parties and the number of local • Try to do everything activists in decline, a well-publicised web site can attract new blood to the constituency campaign. It is also a good • Pack the web site with animation and graphics. organisational tool to tell people where the candidates • Make promises you cannot keep – e.g ‘we will reply will be at any time, arrange lifts to polling stations and to all questions in one hour’. allow people to apply online for postal votes. • Let the site get out-of-date. If you haven’t got time The cost of publishing on the web is a tiny fraction of to update the site regularly, avoid sections such as the cost of publishing on paper. The web can handle ‘latest news’. massive amounts of information and, with search • Be too formal – the language used on the web and facilities and good sign posting, voters can navigate in e-mails tends be more relaxed than in print media. themselves quickly to information relevant to their individual circumstances. Pamphlets and press releases are short, snappy and laden with sound bites. On their web site, candidates have the space to elaborate on short statements and give their views on low profile or specialist issues. The web is a two-way medium. 36% of candidate web sites in the election asked for feedback and views from visitors. Other sites offered online polling facilities and discussion boards. Politicians are regularly accused of not listening to the views of the electorate. Feedback mechanisms are another means for a candidate to build a relationship with a voter. This can effectively complement traditional campaigning. By the next UK election, candidates will not be seen as opting into the information age but opting out. Those candidates who do not offer constituents an online option will be viewed as at best lazy, and at worst uninterested. Beccy Earnshaw is Project Manager at the Hansard Society e-democracy programme Winning a seat in Cyber Space

38 Stephen Coleman Was thereanonlinepublicdialogue? the trust that members ofthepublichaveinother the trust upon hostile. Thepopularity oftheseencountersrests random selectionoftheundecided andtheplainly to submitthetestofwinning the confidenceofa forced studio audiencesonbothBBCand ITVandwere public voice. the needtoshowthatitcanconnect politicstothe mediahasbeenalmostobsessiveabout the electronic ubiquitouselectionphone-insto studiodebates, From theirpaces. politicians through seentosetthe agendaandputthe peopleare ‘real’ events,inwhich participatory increating interested cameras), themediahasbecomeincreasingly and principallyforthebenefitoftelevision conditions underhighlycontrolled soapbox oratory, of meeting (despiteoccasionalsymbolicreincarnations ofthepublic theculture from haveretreated As parties in interactivecommunication. top-down information-flowratherthanparticipants so thatvotersaremorethaneverrecipientsofa face encountershavedeclinedinrecentelections, well-publicised electionmeetings,buttheseface-to- between politiciansandvotersusedtotakeplaceat television andtelephone.Two-way communication elite tothevoters,viapost,posters,radio,press, tended tofacilitateone-wayflowsfromthepolitical In anearlier,moredeferentialage,suchchannels reliable andinclusivechannelsofcommunication. Healthy democraciesaredependentuponrobust, 1 In 2001, all three main party leadersfaced mainparty In 2001,allthree faced theBBC’s viewers andlistenerstopoliticalslots.WhenTony Blair inattracting difficulties media hasexperiencedgreat interactivity, towards Despite thisturn thebroadcast political polemic. bytheNHSspokelouderthanany with hertreatment Election Call inadramaticencounteron theBBC confronted Beckett wassimilarly Margaret cancersufferer; a who haranguedhiminpubliconbehalfofherpartner, Storer election Tony bySharron Blairwasconfronted seminalmomentinmedia‘peoplepower.’ Inthe2001 a –was wouldeverhaveuttered interviewer professional good enough,MrsThatcher’–acommentthatno in thecaller’sexasperatedcomment:‘That’sjustnot Thatcher overthesinkingofBelgrano,culminating ofMargaret Diana Gould’s1983phone-ininterrogation ofthepublicmood. expressions withtimely confronted of dramawhenpoliticiansare illuminate policyissues;andtheoccasionalmoments people toinvokeexperiencesthat of ‘ordinary’ members ofthepublictospeakforthem;capacity for viewers to reach for their remote control zappers. control fortheirremote for viewerstoreach to electioncoveragewas popular interactive response viewersin 2001thanitlostin1997,themost more BBCNewslosingasmany2million coverage. With election from publicturn-off inexorable drifttowards hasbeenan there As withthedeclineinturnout, campaign,only2.5millionviewerschosetowatch. 2001 programme byacallerwhosefrustration programme Question Time audience duringthe

39 Was there an online public dialogue? Was there an online public dialogue?

The internet to the rescue of democracy? and 568 of the 1,200 messages on the Today The internet has inspired high hopes amongst political programme forum between May 8 and 25 and June 4 commentators and democratic theorists, with some to 6. These fora were selected for their different envisaging the emergence of an online public sphere in formats and styles. Talking Point comprises edited which anyone can talk to everyone. In the UK’s 1997 e-mail messages. These web fora comprised pre- election few attempts were made to encourage online moderated messages from two different audiences: debate – not least because only 2% of the population It’s Your Parliament users tend to be less politically then had home access to the internet. By 2001, over a sophisticated and closer to the culture of a political third of the population had home access to the internet; chat room; Today forum users tend to be more the BBC had created and developed a well-resourced politically sophisticated and are driven by the agenda online service; the broadsheet newspapers had set up of the highly respected daily news programme. their own web sites; and several independent political In addition, we examined 39 BBC Online web casts. web sites, such as YouGov and epolitix had established These were quite different from other online discussion credible reputations. Given these conditions could the fora, in that they were more like television on the web internet play a role in opening up a public dialogue than a traditional online discussion forum. Our aim about the election? In the absence of a televised was to examine the discursive and interactive potential leaders’ debate (a lamentable failure of the old media of web casts. to invigorate democratic discourse), could the new media generate an authentic voters’ debate? The Guardian’s election web site was launched shortly before the campaign started. It ran a number of In exploring and evaluating the extent of online election separate discussion topics, each on their own message dialogue, it is important to distinguish between the boards. 573 messages were posted between May 31 various forms of online discourse. Just as there are and June 6, of which all were analysed for this research. critical distinctions between the Sun and the Guardian The Times, Financial Times and Daily Telegraph also or Channel 4 and ITV2, so it would make little sense to ran election message boards, but failed to attract the examine chat rooms and web-based discussion forums numbers of posters or quality of messages at the as if they were the same thing – they are both arenas Guardian discussion forum. We also analysed four web for online discussion but, comparing them may be casts run by the Guardian site. rather like trying to compare pub arguments with policy seminars. So, our research methodology In all, we analysed 2,474 messages posted by members involved identifying the various kinds of online of the public, as well as 43 separate web casts. This was discourse available to the public during the election sufficient to give us a clear picture of what was campaign and pursuing detailed studies of each of happening in the most high-profile online election them, primarily based upon content analysis of debates, but the picture is incomplete because we messages submitted to the discussions. This research chose not to examine other, smaller web-based set out to answer the following questions: discussions or chat rooms. The latter were not nearly as widely used in the UK election as in the US, where • What opportunities were available for voters to there seems to be a youth-centred chat-room culture. participate in online discussion about the election? We also left out newsgroups, of which there were several • How many voters did debate online and what sort specifically discussing the UK election, some of which of people were they? grew to several thousand postings during the campaign • What was discussed, and who set the agenda? period. Newsgroup election discussion will be the subject of further research, but at this point it can be • To what extent could these online debates be reported that these were more akin to communities of regarded as a contribution to a more democratic committed participants than anything resembling a election? public sphere to which interested bystanders might come to ask a question or make a point. Discussion opportunities The online discussion fora were well publicised and In the 1997 election, the limited online debate that took easy to join, assuming that voters had access to the place was facilitated by UK Citizens Online Democracy internet and basic online skills. This begs the question, (UKCOD), a non-profit, citizens’ initiative.2 In 2001, the central to all e-democratic thought, of the digital divide main spaces for online debate were provided by and the tendency for those without internet access or established media organisations, moving online as an skills to become even more information-poor as a result extension of their offline profiles. The BBC has for of being outside the online loop. For opportunities to some time been devoting considerable energy to its discuss the election to have been truly democratic, discussion areas – these include BBC News Online’s strategies needed to have been devised for building Talking Point, which allows people to e-mail comments bridges to the digitally excluded. on set topics, which are then edited and published selectively online; and its BBC Online message-board forums, to which anyone can register and send The people spoke – but how many? comments on a range of agenda topics. We know from our MORI polling that very few voters In the 2001 election, we analysed 833 messages to participated in web-based discussions or chat rooms. Talking Point; 500 out of 1,050 messages on the It’s Indeed, of the representative sample polled, none Your Parliament forum between May 15 and June 6; claimed to have participated in such online discourse Was there an online public dialogue?

40 • • • • • • suggest. far fewerthanthethousandsofmessageswould – process dominatingtheentire online debaterswere smallcaucusof thatavery our studywediscovered examine howmanypeoplesentthe2,474messagesin discussions abouttheelection.Butwhenwecameto inonline Nonetheless, somepeopledidparticipate with peopletheyknewthanthepublicatlarge. discussingpoliticsonline comfortable more they were e-mailsabouttheelection,suggestingthat received during theelection.Onein20saidthattheysentor Online’s BBCNews andrule-based. mediated,filtered more It maybethatdemocraticdiscourse isbestwhenit ofthechatenvironment. the unmanagednature andtheirqualitybalancereflected synchronous) are (chat rooms versionsofchatrooms asynchronous ratherlike thesewere themselves. Inshort, theychosetoexpress they likedinwhateverform to userswasthattheycouldhavetheirsaywhenever messages togouponthesite,butgeneralmessage orlibellous moderators whowouldnotallowoffensive were tothetopicunderdiscussion.There or relevance ofitsvalue submit acommentatanytime,regardless highlyunmediated–anyonecould that theywere discussionforawas withthesethree The mainproblem contribute tointelligentdebate. tomakeanoise,butoftentheleast enough energy that foraofthiskindtendtobedominatedbythosewith apopularprejudice others. Thiswouldseemtoconfirm likelytosetthediscussionagendathan and more contributingfactualinformation highly opinionated,rarely almostexclusivelymale, posters:theywere infrequent ofthenationasawholethan representative online discussions,wefoundthatthisminoritywasless smallminoritydominatethese Not onlydidavery messages inall–contributedaminorityofmessages: those whoonaveragepostedbetweenoneandthree contributorstoonlinediscussions–i.e. that infrequent theoppositeperspective,wecansee Looked atfrom In the In the In In the The 568analysedmessagesinthe 61% ofallmessages. posterscontributed users, ofwhichjust13frequent Parliament The 500messagesanalysedinthe mere 21%ofmessages. mere but contributed a constituted 93%ofparticipants, messages. andcontributed39%ofthe 87% ofparticipants posters contributed79%ofallmessages. postedby106people,ofwhomsevenfrequent were and 13posted61%ofallmessages. 35% ofallmessages(withoneposting96them) users,ofwhomfiveposted 87registered came from 39% ofthemessages. andcontributed constituted 83.5%ofallparticipants It’s Your Parliament Talking Point Guardian Today Guardian discussion came from 79registered discussion camefrom forum, infrequent postersconstituted infrequent forum, forum, infrequent posters infrequent forum, the573analysedmessages forum, is anexampleof suchmediated , infrequent posters infrequent , Today It’s Your forum • • • • and aphone-in, betweenanonlineletters’column Something ofacross ofthem–forpublication. messages –oreditedparts mail theircommentsongiventopicsandselectsthose debating chamber’, as‘thenation’s and editeddiscussion.Presented disproportionately represented: disproportionately analyse genderbalanceandfoundthatmenwere Wequite awidevarietyofbackgrounds. ableto were themessages,itappearsthattheycamefrom reading dataaboutthem,but,from islittleconcrete There ofpeoplecontributedtoonlinediscussions? What sort rather thanaclub. discussion, inabroad ofasenseparticipating more messages uponthesite.So,thesepostershavemuch thantwo hadnomore published andmostoftherest posters to once-onlyposters:66%ofthe majority camefrom numbers ofpeople.Ofthe833messagesanalysed, focuseddiscussioninvolvingmuchbigger more .BBCNewsOnline’s15-minutedaily online 1. We examinedfourseriesofwebcasts: toselectede-mailssentbythepublic. and responded ontheweb appeared these, guestpoliticiansorexperts mediatedandedited.In evenmore The webcastswere men. clear thatover97%ofallthesewere codedforgenderitwas posterswere When frequent collected could be compared with that from a with thatfrom collected couldbe compared forthedata interesting, series (thiswas particularly supplement toitspopular In In the In the In Talking Point It’s Your Parliament Guardian Today Talking Point Talking Point’s ou 1 eemen. 91%were forum Talking Point 28 eemen. 82.8% were ou 8 eemen. 88%were forum had onlyonemessage 93.8% of posters were men. 93.8% ofposterswere Election Call main achievementisa allows peopletoe- phone-in

41 Was there an online public dialogue? Was there an online public dialogue?

separate study of Election Call being conducted by Messages in the Today forum were much more related the present writer). to issues discussed on the Today radio programme; the 2. BBC News Online’s Election Forum and Leaders’ online agenda was set by a traditional offline media Forum, conducted daily at midday between May 14 agenda-setter. Few messages in the Today forum were and June 6. unrelated to the election. 3. BBC News Online’s Election Trail in which the In the Guardian forum, the frequent posters tended to public had a chance ‘to talk to real people engage in a debate of their own, with high levels of involved in real areas of life, like health, interaction (over 80% of their messages are replies to education and transport’. other messages), whereas infrequent posters tended to 4. The Guardian’s four Politics Talk web casts with raise new topics for discussion. It seems as if frequent Tessa Jowell, Patricia Hewitt, Stephen Byers and posters were more involved in the established party- Simon Hughes. media election agenda, whereas infrequent posters tended to use online discussion as a way of setting their On average, 15 e-mail questions were put to the guest own agenda topics. politicians in each of the Election Call web casts – these were selected from several hundred e-mails sent (rising In Talking Point, the discussion topics were set by to over 1,000 when Tony Blair was the guest). professional journalists; contributors had to respond to the questions of the day in order to have a chance of In Election Forum, the 18 politicians each answered being selected for publication. But, interestingly, of the seven e-mails on average – which was approximately four most popular topics in Talking Point (i.e. those one every two minutes. The party leaders answered attracting most e-mails from the public) three were on 11 questions per web cast – spending 1.7 minutes on issues that did not conform to the highest profile issues each answer. in the party-media agenda: In the Guardian web casts, guest politicians received • The number of women MPs attracted 2,650 e-mails. live questions from voters, but did not respond to all of them: Patricia Hewitt and Simon Hughes both • Tactical voting received 2,371. responded to 58% of questions put; Stephen Byers • Rail nationalisation received 1,464. responded to 28%; the system broke down when Tessa Jowell made her web cast appearance and therefore a • The euro (which was very much on the agenda of simple interview was conducted instead. one main party) attracted 1,517. Also, Talking Point was overwhelmed by e-mails on the The people’s agenda? day of the ‘Prescott punch’ and whenever Lady Thatcher made a public comment. As we have established, the participants in online discussions could hardly be regarded as constituting In the much more mediated web casts, established the voice of the public. They did not reflect the public’s party-media agenda issues dominated, but this might gender balance and were dominated by a few have been because those selecting these e-mails were opinionated voices. Nonetheless, even a minority can more receptive to such issues than to new agenda sometimes serve to represent what larger numbers of issues. (To investigate this further we would need to people would have chosen to say had they taken the compare used and unused e-mails sent to these fora.) trouble to do so. The web casts were seen much more – both by the guest politicians and the broadcasters – as a form of For example, in the 1997 Election Call series, although broadcasting: 46,465 people in all clicked on to the no more than 250 callers actually appeared on the air, a BBC web casts, with 2,203 watching the Blair web survey of viewers and listeners to the programme cast on June 1. found that 69% of TV viewers and 53% of radio listeners agreed with the proposition that: ‘The callers as a whole asked the type of questions I would want to ask.’3 To what extent did the online debates during the 2001 election indicate that the public had its own agenda to pursue? The It’s Your Parliament forum invited voters to discuss questions posed by the host. There were 10 such questions throughout the campaign, ranging from the euro to devolution to public spending to predictions of the election result. Despite this agenda setting, only 25% of messages posted to the forum related to the questions put and only 43% of messages related explicitly or implicitly to the election – 57% of messages ignored the election. Contributors to this forum started 78 different discussion threads during the course of the campaign; 23.4% of messages posted were about the EU or the euro; but two days before the election one of the most active threads was discussing gun law, a non- election issue. Was there an online public dialogue?

42 concentrated upontwokeyquestions: rationallydeliberative?Ourresearch discussions were theextenttowhichonline How canonedetermine number ofcontexts. which isexaminingonlinepublicdeliberationina study research ofamuchbroader analysis ispart publictalk.Thiselectiondebate condescension towards stateofaloof that onestandsinapermanent sohigh isnopointinsettingdiscursivestandards there aboutcriteriafordeliberation– to betooprescriptive not of onlineelectiondiscussionwehavebeencareful • • fordeliberative discussion. requirements democracy hasemphasisedanumberofnormative ondeliberative literature deliberation. Therecent letting thepublicrantandencouragingrational between isasignificantdistinction,however, There vulnerable potential. potential,albeita digital mediacanonlyoffer inthe2001election,two-waypathof the fore alienation anddisconnectionwhichseemedtocome of meaningful.Giventheproblems democracy more tomake themcanonlyserve wishing torepresent other aswelltoquestionandchallengethose forcitizenstospeakeach bytheinternet provided isgoodfordemocracy.expression Theopportunities of In onesense,almostanythingthatextendsfreedom Din ordeliberation? offered a pretty comfortable ridetothepoliticians. comfortable apretty offered totheirpoints,webcasts to commentontheresponse usuallyinvited callersare so, unlikeonaphone-inwhere nochancetochallengetheiranswers politicianoffers a tosendonee-mailquestion addition, theopportunity indiscussingtheelection.In tedious ornotinterested either dominatedbycliqueswhowere fora were theunmediated out,whereas filtered politicians were members ofthepublicseekingtoexposeortripup somanagedthat mediated onlineencounterswere forthismightbethatthe Thereason or wrong-footed. putonthespot particularly in whichpoliticianswere tofindasingleinstanceofanonlineencounter difficult interactioninthevariousonlinefora.Itis newsworthy sofewmomentsofdrama,conflictor were that there some ofthemostdramaticmoments,itissurprising people’provided politicians’ encounterswith‘real Considering thatthiswasacampaigninwhich it gives people something to think about before putting it givespeoplesomething tothinkaboutbefore someof theviewpointsand way peoplewill have heard Atleastthis we pickatopicthathasbeenon theshow. fortheBBC,explained tousthat:‘Generally,the forum Stevens,who‘hosted’ Gregory the radioprogramme. The basis fortheircomments. topersonalexperienceasa and3%referred information tofactual substantiation ofanykind;only9%referred statementsofopinion,withnofactual posted were In the and learning from anyoneelse? from and learning Did messagepostersshowanysignsoflisteningto experience? orrelevant information Were themessagespostedbaseduponfactual Today It’s Your Parliament forum soughttolinkthediscussiontopics to forum 4 forum, 74.6%ofmessages forum, 5 In thisstudy nthe In the debate. to only 9.5%ofpostersbringinganyfactualinformation mainlystatementsofopinion(70%),with were forum debate.’ Despitethisintention,messagestothe well-informed amore their messagesup.Itprovides • • • • and the environments inwhichtheyfindthemselves. and theenvironments todistinguish betweenhowpeoplebehave important chatting tooneanother. anditis Thisisacaricature andincessantly to berigidlyopinionated,uninformed dominate theonlinediscussions, wemightexpectthem posterswho discussions. Whenweisolatefrequent balanced understandingofwhat ishappeninginonline isaneedformore idealdeliberators.There from far inonlinediscussionsasbeingvery participants of ofpaintingapicture indanger here are We another. –mainlytoone andhighlyresponsive information onfactual opinionated,short most messageposterswere thisisthat The generalconclusiontobedrawnfrom interaction betweenposters: of wasahighdegree online discussion,there of nature andvirtual In fact,giventheasynchronous soapboxrantingthandeliberation. would bemore toanybody discussion inwhichnobodyresponded Anonline verbal andbodilycuesreactions. aswell interactionsandinterruptions, frequent characterisedby conversation ordebate.Thelatterare sociability andvigourofface-to-facepolitical ofactivity, the sort farfrom solitary site isapretty to oneanother?Afterall,postingamessageweb showanysignsoflistening Did discussionparticipants (20.9%) information baseduponfactual of selectede-mailswere In thewebcasts,asignificantlyhighernumber theirownexperiences. to and3.8%referring including anyfactualinformation (72.4%),withonly2.4% opinionated andfact-free Talking Point Surprisingly, giventhatitwasaneditedforum, their arguments. totheirownexperiencessupport only 1.5%referred (30%),although frequent muchmore were information constrained direct interactionbetweenparticipants. constrained direct becausethe format another (5.4%),probably oneposterto from fewresponses very were there mediated In themuchmore In the and18%byagreeing. disagreeing by to earliermessages.Ofthese,40%responded In the In the responses toothers. responses (7.4%) than agreed messages(29.6%)rather withprevious disagreed conversationswashigh.Mostresponses participant offamiliarityandmulti- name, andthedegree posterscametoknowoneanother, oftenby where wasnotunlikeachatroom thisforum earlier, post.Asstated toaprevious replies analysed were Guardian Guardian Today It’s Your Parliament messages were alsooverwhelmingly messages were forum, messagesbaseduponfactual forum, ou,6%o esgswr replies 65%ofmessageswere forum, forum, 55%ofmessageswere forum, forum, 76%ofmessages forum, Talking Point forum, Today

43 Was there an online public dialogue? Was there an online public dialogue?

• In the It’s Your Parliament forum, the frequent In Realising Democracy Online, Jay Blumler and the posters seem to conform to the image of being present writer have argued the case for a ‘civic uninformed and chatty: 43.5% of all uninformed commons in cyber space’ which would be publicly comments in that forum came from frequent funded and connected to real-world political posters, as did 56.7% of disagreements with institutions. Trust arises from outcomes: people trust previous messages. shops which deliver to them the goods on offer; they trust banks that let them have their money when they • In the Today forum, frequent posters contributed need it; they trust hospitals that treat them when they 61% of the messages, but only 24% of those included are ill. Online discussion is currently distrusted any factual information. because citizens are invited to ‘have their say’ (a rather • In the Guardian forum, however, frequent and patronising formulation, incidentally) and then just left infrequent posters were equally unlikely to support to talk to themselves. their arguments factually, and 80% of messages from frequent posters were replies, mainly serving A poll of 4,782 people, conducted by YouGov.com for to sustain the debates and encourage further this research, found that 64% of respondents agreed messages from infrequent posters. that ‘online discussions are usually dominated by the same few people’ and 44% agreed that ‘online Rather than condemn frequent posters for being discussions rarely lead to any useful conclusions’.76% of frequent (after all, who condemns MPs for speaking those who participated in online discussions agreed more frequently than others in Parliament?), it would that such discussions help to inform people about be more useful to consider why so few people choose to different points of view from their own. When asked to participate at all. If discussion is good for democracy, state the most important features of useful online barriers to it should be taken seriously. discussions, 27% said that all participants should have a Citizens do not participate in online discussions fair say and 17% said that they should feed into the because they lack interest in politics as they understand policy-making process. it. They do not participate because they lack confidence The web casts succeeded in the 2001 election because in their ability to articulate political views; they lack time they opened up real connections between voters and to participate; they are sceptical about the purpose or those seeking to represent them – even though they outcome of such discussions; and they are aware of the offered no real opportunities for voters to pursue their reputation of online discussion – indeed, most public points beyond the initial question. In the other fora political discussion – as being dominated by the such connections did not exist and so those opinionated and the super-confident. Rather than participating tended to talk as if nobody cared very accept these as facts of life – much as one might start much what they were saying. There has been a to accept the fact that young people do not vote – there tendency for producers of online discussions to treat is a case for thinking seriously about how online the public condescendingly: ‘what you say counts… engagement in democratic discussion could be let’s hear what’s on your mind… come and get it off encouraged and promoted. your chest.’ There should certainly be spaces online for people to Promoting a national conversation chat – on BBC Online the EastEnders discussion forum The internet offers a prospect of promoting an inclusive is by far the most popular. But democracy is a more national conversation in which citizens can enter the complex relationship than having a natter and there is a democratic debate, exchange views with others, listen need to think through the best conditions for and learn. The use of the internet in the 2001 election facilitating democratic and meaningful discourse. shows an interest on the part of major media organisations in generating an environment for public debate, but, as our research findings have shown, the Interactive representation discussions that took place were far from inclusive, Interactive politics requires interactive politicians. As popular or balanced. In setting out ideas for future we have shown elsewhere in this report, few candidates online political discussion, we are not arguing that made real use of the interactivity of the internet during democracy will never be healthy until everyone can be the 2001 election. Truly interactive politics will not persuaded to participate in political debate, nor are we happen until online interactivity is regarded less as a arguing that the internet is a substitute for other loci of gimmick and more as an integral part of the process of conversation and debate, such as talks amongst friends democratic representation. The strongest impression and families, party involvement or other media- one receives from reading the messages in the various generated discussions. What can be done to engage online fora is of an electorate that feels disconnected more people in the online democratic debate? from the political elite; they simply do not believe that their representatives are listening to them or making an effort to keep in touch with them. A couple of examples Trusted spaces are indicative of hundreds more like them: Just as people go to polling stations to vote, they need ‘I’ve come to the conclusion all MPs are just a bunch to know that there are trusted places – or, in cyber- of liars who never do what they say they will. They’re terms, spaces – where they can participate with others like spoilt children in a playground, name-calling in meaningful public discussion. their opponents and never admitting that they might Was there an online public dialogue?

44 interaction between representatives andtherepresented. interaction betweenrepresentatives forauthentic takes intoaccountthenewopportunities which ofrepresentation, people callsforare-invention Reconnectionwiththe interactive politicalgestures. onJune7.Thesolutiondoesnotliein of turnout campaign mighthavesensedtheimpendingcollapse messages inonlinediscussionsduringthe2001 the if theychoosetohearit.Indeed,anyonereading sendingamessagetopoliticians– might be,theywere unfairthoughsuchcomments Intemperate andperhaps and trusted outcomes. and trusted but onlyifitcanwinpeopletobyimaginativecontent ofe-democracy, forthe future amajorplatform provide withpeople’sdailylives.Digitaltelevisioncould more connectingit humanise anddomesticatetheinternet, ofoneanother.and hearingmore Thiswillhelpto instead ofjustwritingtoeachotherweshallbeseeing online politicswilldevelopintomultimedia–sothat expands, peoplecomeonlineandbroadband more intuitive tooperateandisstillmainlytext-based.As isfiddlyandcounter- use andhighlyvisual;theinternet being auser-friendlytechnology. Television iseasyto isstillfarfrom the nextgeneralelection.Theinternet online–thiswillnotbethecaseattimeof currently and culturaltransition.Lessthanhalfthepopulationis tookplaceduringaperiodoftechnological certainly election’,it Whether ornot2001wasan‘internet Broadband andmultimedia dominated by just a few people; so, if the trade-off is dominated byjust afewpeople;so,ifthetrade-off inforathatare People donotwanttoparticipate ofciviliseddebate. rules the establishmentofagreed Thiscallsfor to makethemostoftheiropportunities. Democracy mustbeorganisedin waysthathelppeople The needformoderation,filtration andsummation o ed–May192001, BBCOnlineForum – Joe Herd like sheep.’ fiveyears are onlyfittobeledtheballotboxevery havestatedearlier, theythinkweknownothing and I We willnotbeallowedthisthoughforthereasons influence theoutcomewiththeirownpropaganda. to vote onit,Preferablywithoutthemediatrying usandweareallowed to issue isactuallyputbefore name. TheonlywayIcanseethathappeningisifthe have asayinwhatisactuallytakingplacemy in abox.Iwouldliketobeconsulted, fiveyearscross this phoneydemocracy, theonceevery damnangry. Iamtotallyfedupwith ‘I amangry, Janet Hanton–May312001,BBCNewsOnline buttheyneverkeepthem.’ promises I’ve cometorealisethatpoliticiansmakelotsof shop issixmilesaway. Butthey’renotinterested. thenearest Doncaster leavesat4.30intheafternoon, Theschoolhousehasclosed,thelastbusto problems. politician [inthevillage]then.We’ve gotlotsofother November wehadfloods,butyouneversawa but I’veneverseenourMPhereinallthattime.Last has agoodidea.I’velivedinthisvillagefor19years orthatsomeoneontheothersideactually be wrong are acknowledged andmuchappreciated are Roman Winkler. Theircontributionstothisresearch and MilicaHowell,EmilieNormann Bianca Jordan, postgraduate students:JamieCowling,ThorstenFaas, LSE andpresent teamcomprisingformer by aresearch The dataonwhichthischapterisbasedwasproduced 5. See Dryzek, J., SeeDryzek, 5. SeeBlumler, J.G.,andColeman,S.,Realising 4. Coleman,S., 3. www.democracy.org.uk 2. .Coleman,S.,‘InteractiveMediaandthe1997 1. e-democracy programme Society Dr StephenColemanisDirectoroftheHansard for betterdemocracy. asaresource and experienceofcitizenstoberecruited andfortheexpertise opinions ofthosetheyrepresent, tobeconnectedwiththeinformed representatives new channelsofcommunicationthatwillallow Theneedisfor as dolocalandnationalgovernments. with thepublicviaonlinediscussionsandconsultations, connecting legislative bodyhavemuchtogainfrom theelection.MPsandParliamentasa arise from institutionsthat incorporated intotherepresentative ofdemocracy,than ephemeralfeatures theyneedtobe tobemore aParliament.Ifonlinediscussionsare form to aboutelectingrepresentatives General electionsare Beyond theelectioncampaign democratic discourse. tobenefit iftheyare outwithstrictimpartiality carried tasksmustbe Theseproduction conclusion reached. has beensaidsofarandasenseofcohesion canseewhat the discussions,sothatnewparticipants reasonably. summariesof shouldalsoberegular There tohelpthemputtheirarguments resources information –including ofsupport themaximumdegree offered andparticipants discussionthreads within appropriate moderated;messagesneedtobeplaced transparently Online discussionsneedtobecompetentlyand dominate discussionsshouldnotprevail. rightto people,itisclearthatthecurrent more inclusionofmany persistent postersandthegreater ofadozen ofexpression between thetotalliberty Press, 1996 Press, Fishkin, J., 1991; Judgement, SyracuseUniversityPress, 2000;Yankelovich, D.,ComingtoPublic OUP, IPPR, 2001,p12 Democracy Online:ACivicCommonsinCyberspace Call beingwrittenofthe2001 currently Forum? 1998, Vol.20(4) General Election’ series) Hansard Society,Hansard 1999, p27 (Astudyis The Voice ofthePeople Election Call:ADemocraticPublic Deliberative DemocracyandBeyond Media, Culture&Society Yale University , Election October , , ,

45 Was there an online public dialogue? Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters? Nicola Hall

On June 7, only 38% of 18-25 year-olds voted. I was olds use text messaging every day1 and 82% of 16-24 one of that percentage – but why was I in the minority year-olds have internet access – compared to just over and could the internet have made any difference? 40% nationally2. There are three million students in the UK, the majority of whom have access to a university The turnout for 18-25 year-olds fell far below the e-mail account and internet access. A Guardian poll exceptionally low average turnout of 59% across the published in March 2001 estimated that 24% of 18-24 UK. First and second-time voters were simply not year-olds would look online for news and information interested enough in this election to use their vote. about party policies and issues and nearly a quarter of first-time voters would use the internet to help them Apathy? decide how to vote3. The market and appetite for Apathy was blamed as the root cause of the low turnout. e-technologies are already well established – so how Theories abound as to the reasons – satisfaction with were e-technologies used to invigorate the youth vote? the status quo, convergence between the main parties towards the centre ground, (especially on macro- This chapter will: economic policy), lack of a viable alternative party, and • Explore recent research that suggests that although even that the election was a foregone conclusion and apathy in young people is often mistaken for laziness, Labour’s second term was guaranteed. Even in fiercely this is not necessarily the case and that young people contested marginal seats, turnout remained at a similar do take an active interest in ‘politics’ – even if they or slightly lower figure compared with 1997. Despite the do not define their interest in ‘political issues’ in parties’ best efforts, the election did not engage 62% of that way. 18-25 year-olds. • Look at what happened online for younger voters and critically analyse its impact. Technology? • Consider the implications of these findings for future A second element here is technology – mobile ventures into e-campaigning and online citizenship telephones, WAP, the internet and e-mail. Young people for younger voters.4 have above average access to and affinity with such new technologies. It is estimated that 81% of 15-24 year- Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

46 (1) The new apathy site was launched called www.Ruup4it.org.uk. It was Youth apathy is not a new phenomenon. Common marketed via scratch cards sent out to universities and wisdom has it that young people cannot be bothered other literature. The site included: with politics, are apathetic to the point of laziness and • Celebrity quotes and interviews with soap stars, uninterested in political issues – exemplified by low comedians, and famous politicians, such as Nelson turnout in this and many previous elections. Contrary Mandela. Users could discover that David Lammy to popular opinion, recent research suggests that young MP’s favourite type of music was drum and base. people do possess political values and opinions, take an • Quotes from ordinary students and young people active role in political processes and understand the supporting Labour. importance of citizenship and political participation5. • Text message competition to design a slogan for A recent study found that young people possess a the party and an online vote for the best one. narrow definition of politics – they see it as the adversarial combat of Prime Minister’s Question Time and party • Downloadable games, screensavers. warfare. These were the elements of politics with which • News – a set of links to news web sites (including they could not identify or have respect for. However, the BBC, ITN Channel 4 and various newspapers). young people are interested in issues that have political Voting information – FAQs such as ‘Why should resonance for them, even if they do not couch such • I vote?’ and ‘How do I vote?’ interest in political terms. Furthermore ‘even those who declare themselves least interested in politics share • Get involved section – including suggestions such political concerns and may have taken part in activities as ‘write to your MP’, ‘go on a demo’, ‘read the such as signing a petition, attending a local protest or BBC’s politics pages’ or ‘join a pressure group’. 6 voting in an election’. • Download the youth manifesto. It is not just that younger voters do not wish to vote, but • The Difference – a section to describe the main that it is harder for them to vote since they are less likely policy differences between the main parties in the to be on the electoral register. A recent study found that form of a ‘check box’ list where users could tick 60% of the 18-24 group are registered to vote compared policy statements that they agreed with then be 7 to 92% of the general population . Younger people are presented with a summary of what the Labour more likely to be mobile on a yearly basis (particularly party was doing in those areas. students and recent graduates) and do not register at each new address. The introduction of the rolling register • E-bulletin – users could sign up for a ‘Youth for the 2001 general election made it easier to register e-bulletin’ about youth news issues. at any time in the year and was available via a special • Mock election pack – downloadable items such web site www.rollingregister.gov.uk. But it was not well as a Tony Blair letter, top 10 campaign tips and advertised and we wait to see what impact this had on the Labour campaign song. the accuracy of the register on June 7. The web site provided some useful information for first- Young people are interested in issues and have repeatedly time voters and accessible summaries of policy positions shown that their concerns mirror those of older adults and youth policies. It was bright, attractive and simple in terms of health, education and work. Some of the to navigate. It combined information with personality, most successful examples of online activity presented glamour and humour – it was far more than any other in the next section display this interest in issues above party attempted. and beyond traditional party politics. However, young The site was another arm to the main party e-campaign. people feel under-represented in terms of age, gender It re-packaged the main site (with a few additional and racial diversity by MPs and feel disconnected from features such as competitions) in a less formal style their representatives in-between election times. It will with less party branding and relevant information for take more than a few text messages or fancy election web sites to combat these problems.

(2) What happened? This section will look at what happened online for younger voters and critically analyse its impact, specifically considering the political parties, political institutions, national youth organisations, youth media sites, humour sites and speciality issue sites.

Political parties

Labour www.Ruup4it.org.uk The Labour Party invested time and effort into attracting younger voters. A week into the campaign a youth web Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

47 What did the internet do for first-time voters?

young people highlighted. Younger voters could get in contact and interact with the people ‘behind the receive information directly from the party without scenes’. LDYS was a good example of how the internet interference and mediation by media sources. However, can be utilised on a small scale to send information to the site offered limited possibilities to interact with the people who could not access it elsewhere. LDYS party and contained no links to candidate information. indicated that small groups could compete online on It lacked a ‘face’ or personality and almost had the feel equal footing with better-funded organisations. of a ‘big brother’ talking to you. This top-down Matthew Hanney, LDYS web master, reflected that: approach, as in much of the e-campaigning, probably ‘We’re a much smaller organisation than young intimidated and patronised as many users as it Labour… We can put the data on the net then tell enlightened or encouraged. people at student unions. It makes it a whole lot easier to get our message across. In terms of on-the-ground Labour asked people to volunteer their mobile phone campaigning, just for financial reasons, we’re never number through the Ruup4it? site. They sent out a going to be able to match them pound for pound – series of four text messages in the final week of the whereas on the web site we can rely on people doing campaign. The first specifically targeted younger voters their computer degree or whatever to do it for us.’ with the message ‘Don’t give a XXXX 4 last ordrs? X Lbr Regarding text messages, Matthew said: ‘To do that on June 7 4 longr drinking hrs’. The message was sent you need to get people to give their mobile phone to around 100,000 numbers but the party hoped it numbers to you and agree for you to text them, and I reached almost three times that number via viral think the only people who are going to do that are marketing. Text messaging was relatively simple for going to vote for you anyway.’ the party to organise and was a successful coup as far as e-campaign strategy was concerned, surpassing anything the other parties tried. Conservatives But it was unlikely to have affected turnout or informed http://www.conservatives.com/consfutures.cfm voters and it is ironic that the policy Labour used to Conservative Future is the youth section of the main attract younger voters has been dropped from their party and comprised one sub-section of the main party legislative programme for this Parliament. Recipients site. These few pages were a minimal concession to the of the messages were probably initially impressed by younger element of the party. They were buried deep the novelty, but whether one single message caused within the main party site and unlikely to attract anyone to vote who would not have done so anyway passing voters. is dubious. In order to receive a text message, one had to have volunteered one’s number via the web site or No other political parties made a noticeable online other campaign literature – which in itself suggests a attempt to attract or involve younger voters. sympathy for the party. Text messaging was a good publicity stunt, an innovative use of the technology and Political institutions certainly did more good for the party than ill. What it The following political institutions and government really did to engage younger voters (apart from a bit departments offered information online for of a giggle in the pub) was limited. younger voters:

Liberal Democrats Home office http://www.cix.co.uk/~ldys/ http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/elections/1617.htm The Liberal Democrats had a separately organised A section aimed at 16-17 year-olds telling them how to site, designed and run by Liberal Democrat Youth get on the electoral register and why to vote – including and Students. It contained: a leaflet about how to register to vote. • Links to Liberal Democrat university groups. http://wood.ccta.gov.uk/homeoffice/hopress.nsf/15be8109 • News. 538c652a802566b30067f95e/ca7c4727e5fc192e802569e 60050b4ab?OpenDocument The site also included • Independent policy information. information about the rolling registration. • Events. • Mock election information – including an e-mailing Local authorities list with useful information on running a campaign. Some local authorities provided online information for • Manifesto and campaigns material. young people such as at http://step- • Feedback by e-mail to the main LDYS representatives. in.staffordshire.gov.uk/youth/index.htm which provided specific contact details for local councils and local MPs The site was not as impressive graphically or in design on their youth pages. as Ruup4it?, nor did it offer text messaging or competitions. But it was designed and developed by a grassroots team of young volunteers8 and was a strong National youth organisations campaigning force on issues such as tuition fees. It was built on a limited budget and received 12,000 hits during National Union of Students the election period, particularly from students. The site http://www.nusonline.co.uk/ provided photos and e-mail addresses so users could Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

48 on it related to theelection. on itrelated butnoneofthemessages to includeadiscussionboard, andwebsites.Itwasoneofaminoritysites groups ofyouthorientated This siteincludedalargedirectory http://www.youth.org.uk/ The Youth Internet Project • • • • • • • • • • Election 2001 section in the Newsroom, including: Election 2001sectionintheNewsroom, encourage studentstovote.Thesitecontainedan oftheworkNUSdoesto NUS Onlinecomprisespart making onelectionday. decision- informed forusers– aidingmore resource ausefulinformation ofthissitewas,itdidprovide effect campaigning.Negligiblethoughthe online andoffline who mayhavebeenmotivatedtovotedueNUS andotherFEcolleges) theUniversityofSurrey (from studentpopulation Thisseathadalarge Conservatives. the from inSurrey seatofGuildford marginal electoral outcomes.TheLiberalDemocratsgainedthe NUS websitemightinsomewayhaveinfluenced foradecade.Shealsobelievedthe turnout the largest at themoment–NUSrallyinLondon2000had active particularly Milly Rosierarguedthatstudentsare impactsofthesite: three NUS,identified from Officer Milly Rosier, PublicAffairs NUS documentencouragingstudentstotakepart. or getapostalvote. onhowtogettheelectoralregister Information Link toFaxYourMP website home address. their NUS Online–allowingstudentstovotefrom though as awholeduetopostalvotes–advertised higherthanintheagegroup students wasprobably among students tobepoliticallyactive.Turnout thewebsitemayhavehelpedmotivate Thirdly, and depthofinformation. variety peoplecouldaccessagreater meant more This timethepackwasavailableonline,which was distributedtoallunionsuseastheywished. tostudents.Inthepastanelectionpack directly Secondly, itfacilitatedeasierdispersalofinformation online. it wastohaveinformation alotofpositivefeedbackabouthowuseful received ofthePeopleAct).They as theRepresentation ofunionsduringanelection(such responsibilities abouttherightsand workers accesstoinformation and studentofficers Firstly itgavecountrywide with disabilities. Welsh studentvoters,gaystudents andstudents Irishstudents, forNorthern Specific articles Making votescount student populations. seatswithlarge aboutkeymarginal Information General ElectionBriefing stoodonkeyissues. theparties ofwhere overview Deciding whotovotefor pieceaboutelectoralreform. a – section –containingan containinganofficial – (www.faxyourMP.com) . • • • politicians. Itincluded: theyouthagendato home page,aimingtopromote electionsectiononits The BYChadaprominent http://www.byc.org.uk/ British Youth Council version oftheirnewsletter. whatamountedtoanonline thanoffering further butdidnotgomuch youth campaigningorganisations foroneofthe The siteestablishedanonlinepresence ofyoungpeople. allegedcaricature election broadcast’s oftheConservative combat youthapathyandarebuttal aboutloweringthevotingageto16 included articles manifestos.Thesite tothemainparties’ online toreply The NationalYouth AgencypublishedaYouth Manifesto http://www.nya.org.uk/ National Youth Agency • • • • content. Itincluded: and foritsinnovativepresentation mentioning here Itisworth under theageof18,i.e.pre-voters. This websitewasaimedspecificallyatyoungpeople http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/election/index.shtml BBC Newsround to engageyoungpeopleinelectionnews. oradapted especiallycreated Several mediasiteswere Youth mediasites • • in thesiteandissuesitwasattemptingtoraise. gettingusersengaged towards steps intherightdirection somewhatlimitedbutwere attempts atinteractivitywere purposesforALevelsetc.The this siteforresearch and themedia.Young peoplewouldonlyneedtolookat mostlyusedbysimilarorganisations and wasprobably forBYC This sitewasanonlinecampaigningpresence their leaders. and basicfactfilesaboutthemainparties read to which allowsuserstoclickanimatedcartoons in certain areas. in certain theamenities toexplore complete anonlinesurvey booths forpeoplewithdisabilities–userscould polling withScopefindingthenearest An article policycomparisonsectionforthemainparties. A download, signandposttotheparties. forYouth Charter whichwasavailableto A Pac-Man game. about thenumberofblackMPs). answers(e.g.aquestion themost recent and read Ask Kate ‘Votemon’ –a‘Pokemon’ to youngpeople. News section–pickingoutnewsitemsrelating publication ordering. detailsor E-mail feedbackforfurther manifestoforloweringthevotingageto16. A users cane-mailquestionsaboutpolitics – 9 cartoon-style section, cartoon-style

49 Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

• Policy feedback – users could e-mail comments about policies. Selections were posted on the site. Although this site really aimed at non-voters, it incorporated bright graphics and colours with useful information and several feedback mechanisms where users could see their comments up on the site. This was one of the most interactive sites found.

Spiked http://www.spiked- online.com/Sections/election/index.htm

Spiked is an online magazine written by and for young • Feedback e-mail channel to e-mail questions for the people. Its tone (satirical and humorous) was of more three party leaders when they were interviewed appeal to older age ranges (20+). It included an election online and to feedback about other issues. section with specially written election stories focusing • Download interviews with three main party leaders on ‘youth issues’ such as the parties’ youth e-campaigns. in front of an audience of Radio 1 listeners. Users could sign up for Spiked by e-mail. • Download a form for the electoral register Sandy Starr of Spiked said: ‘One of Spiked’s principal (removed once out of date) and help-line to aims is to raise the level of discussion and debate call to find out local authority. around politics. The election gave us an ideal opportunity to achieve this. [Spiked aims] to provide a lively, non- Polly Billington said the web site aimed to provide enough party-political analysis of the issues behind the election information for people to make an informed decision in issues, and to encourage genuine engagement with a reasonable manner. The aim was for the election to be political debate.’ Starr maintained that Spiked evident, but the ‘politics’ hidden. The site dealt primarily ‘encouraged younger readers in particular to engage with issues and information. The web site added value more actively in political debate and also to question to what is essentially a music station. Radio 1 gave extra the obsession with voter apathy’. information on the site that it would not have been able to give on-air because listeners would turn off. It tackled The site received 40,000 hits and around 2,000 unique the election in a sensible and realistic way, providing visitors per day; the election section was the sixth most information for those who wanted it, but keeping the popular section of the site. Many users were students, horse-race aspect of the election out of sight. The academics, journalists and young professionals. election part of the site was quite difficult to locate and Spiked worked well and remained popular because it this may have prevented even the keenest users from provided a no-nonsense and realistic version of the finding the information. news, written without party bias. It catered well for the younger, more cynical electorate and stimulated thought Channel 4 Learning and debate through feedback on a letters page, where http://www.4learning.co.uk/electionfever/ readers could have their say in much the same way as an offline newspaper. The Election Fever site used colourful animated graphics to provide information about all aspects of the election – including Parliament and MPs, the pollsters, the polling Radio 1 booth and the campaign tour. It included an A-Z of ‘weird’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/election/electionindex words. It required ‘Flash’ to do justice to the graphics .shtml and animation but also offered a non-flash version for As a result of public service obligations, the BBC slower computers. It offered useful bite-sized information Radio 1 web site had an election section run by Polly in a lively, interesting and amusing way. No alterations Billington. It offered the following: were made to the site during the election period. • Three games (one dedicated to each party leader). Limb By Limb • Links to all the main parties’ web sites so people http://www.limbbylimb.co.uk/ could make an informed decision. Limb By Limb is an online magazine with an election • Downloadable one-minute audio manifestos (new section – it provided a cynical weekly round-up of the one added daily) from a variety of party candidates. events. Visitors could also download a video clip of the • Read bite-sized leader biographies. Prescott punch. The site made only a small concession • Read comparisons on major policy areas through to the election within its usual news coverage. pop-up screens e.g. on crime, drugs, schools. • Downloadable audio clips of 14 celebrities’ views Metro about voting. http://metro.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/election/poll.html • Polly’s page – goes behind the spin to bring the Metro magazine ran an online poll for readers (18-25 +) news (from the campaign tour bus). including questions on who they would vote for, who Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

50 they voted for last time, and who they would like to see Speciality/issue sites lead the parties over the next term. The results were A series of speciality or issue-based sites became published in Metro on June 4. This online poll aimed to prominent during the election. A selection is get young people thinking about election issues and presented below. interacting via the internet. Your Turn Channel 4 http://www.yourturn.net/ http://www.itn.co.uk/election/interactive/yousay/young.s html YourTurn.net positions itself as ‘A web site for young people who want to change things and who want to be This online poll aimed at younger voters specifically: ‘Are heard.’ It received over 40,000 hits over the election you in the 18-25 age group? Surveys have claimed that period and used sophisticated graphics, games and young voters aged between 18 and 25 are less likely to multimedia to gets its message across. It provided: vote in the general election than any other group. Do you find the general election a big turn off? Do the • Mechanisms to get involved in politics. political parties neglect your desires for the next • Explanations and examples of why to get involved. Parliament? If you’re not planning to vote – why not? Send us your comments here:’10 When the site was • Feedback areas via e-mail e.g. ‘Tell us your story’ checked, there were no comments posted! and ‘Tell us your opinion’. • Games to illustrate the effects of decision-making ITN also ran a similar online poll aimed at young people. on everyday lives. These polls utilised new technology to get a snapshot • A guide to the UK. Down-to-earth and accessible of what young people thought about the election – guides explained how the major systems and even if their results were somewhat unrepresentative. structures in the UK operate – from central Being asked an opinion via the internet was one way of government to the law, from the world of sport engaging voters in the political process, but was probably to the media. only used by a minority of people. • Real-life stories – interviews with young people. The news sites aimed to get users in touch with election information in a non-biased and non party-political way Nick Stannah of YourTurn.net said: ‘During the – in a variety of styles from bite-sized (Radio 1) to election, teachers and young people used YourTurn.net critical (Spiked) to humorous (Limb By Limb). to learn about many of the issues important in the UK today, to read the inspirational stories and to use the games and animations. YourTurn.net fights apathy by Humour sites and games providing the information and inspiration for young Internet-based games and humorous web sites provided people to get involved. It highlights politically active one particular mechanism where young people could engage with the election. Sites such as Spinon.co.uk created games such as ‘Splat the MP’ or ‘MP in a Blender’ in reaction to the political events of the campaign. These games were perhaps the most prevalent aspect of the online election. Chris Quigley, creator of Spinon explores the relationship of online humour to youth involvement in the election and explains his motivation for the site (see box on page 12). As Stephen Coleman argues elsewhere in this report, humour became one strategy by which people feeling under-represented (and especially younger people) had their say in the election. By e-mailing a game to a friend, young people were participating in critical political comment and becoming more aware of the issues at stake.

Guilty Party http://www.guiltyparty.cc/ This was one example of the spoof web sites available – based on clubbing. The spoof party toured in a bus round London. Its policies included ‘No tax on vinyl’. Users could download a soundtrack featuring voice samples from the party leaders and newsreel footage of the election campaign. Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

51 What did the internet do for first-time voters?

teenagers and challenges the widely held belief that teenagers in the UK don’t care about politics.’ The site was pitched at younger people; not quite old enough to vote – but any 18-year-old visiting would probably have found something of interest. It was a well-designed and interactive site where the users had a role in the outcomes visible on the web pages.

The site http://www.thesite.org.uk/ Thesite’s mission is to empower and inform its users to make informed decisions on issues – from relationships and sex to the election. Dominic Waghorn of Thesite gay people. It linked to the Gay Vote web site including said: ‘Promoting involvement in the country’s the following: democratic process fits with this mission. We were never going to have the resources to build a massive • News items regarding gay issues in the election. election microsite. Instead, because most are first-time • Online vote to register which party users would voters, informing them on the issues that specifically vote for. affect them was seen as the most viable option.’ • Online vote to ‘name and shame’ Encouragingly, the election section was listed just homophobic politicians. above Big Brother on a list of hot topics! It included: • Online discussion boards about election issues. • Action section – linked to related issue sites and Series of online chats with candidates. FaxYourMP.com. • • Articles about how the parties stood on gay issues. • Pop-up boxes to compare the main parties on key youth policy issues, such as decriminalisation of • Search for your MP and view list of homophobic drugs, immigration, school class sizes and tuition and supportive MPs. fees. The boxes aimed to ‘strip back the gloss and • Online petition for gay rights – received 10,000 spin and provide you with the no nonsense bottom online signatures (representing every 11 line on where each party stands on 10 big issues’ . constituency). Was handed to PM on June 11 • Information on why and how to vote including form on CD-ROM. to download to get on electoral register. This web site made innovative use of the internet to • Set of discussion topics – one of which was devoted campaign for gay rights and inform its users incorporating to politics. Within politics discussion topic there most of the functions that other sites had only partly were 22 sub topics – some relating to the election, used. It attracted over 25,000 visitors and almost 80% others to general political issues. of these used the site to find out their candidate’s views on gay issues. Mark Watson of Gay Vote said: ‘I don’t Thesite had around 12,000 users per week (mostly in believe that people use party sites, but sites like ours – the 16-24 age range) but Dominic Waghorn said: ‘The that cater for a particular group with clear issues. election content has been pretty poorly supported – I think they will become the more popular ideal.’ we’re battling against all the barriers associated with providing political information to young people – apathy, cynicism towards politicians and exams!’ Vote Smart for Muslims This was one of very few sites that hosted discussion http://www.votesmart.org.uk/new/ boards for young people. The boards were fairly well This site was run by an independent group working used and were often ‘hit’ more than the web site itself. with the Muslim Council of Britain to help Muslim The length of comments varied but tended to be short voters play an active role in the election. It included: and chatty. Topics covered included environmental issues and comments about party leaders. The boards • A list of reasons to vote. instilled a sense of community on the site and allowed • A list of MPs with Muslim communities in their users to explore their opinions and test out their views constituencies and excerpts from Hansard journal in an open (moderated) forum. According to Dominic of their record in Parliament. Waghorn: ‘Reasoned debate can and does happen but at • List of suggestions – how to write to your MP, lists the moment people are drawn to our boards for the of questions to ask PPCs etc. advice angle rather than a desire to discuss weighty topical issues.’ • A discussion forum area was under construction. • Sign-up for e-mail alert of latest news. Gay Youth Vote • Details of six marginal seats where Muslim www.thegayvote.co.uk/www.gayyouthuk.co.uk vote is vital. The Gay Youth web site covers various issues for young • List of top 10 marginal constituencies where

Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters? Muslim population outweighs the majority with

52 http://www.studentuk.co.uk/ http://www.only1studentguide.co.uk/ http://www.studentzone.org.uk/ http://www.studentpages.com/ students, butnothingontheelection: for information All thefollowingstudentsitesprovide Student sites butnothingontheelection. horoscopes, films, sports, newspaper. toothertopics: Thishadnewsrelating Juiced http://www.juiced.co.uk Juiced of theelection. This sitedealswithissuepolitics–buthadnomention http://www.amnesty.org.uk/student/ Amnesty InternationalYouth obviously said:‘Astheelectionisallovermedia– Sherwin This isanonlinemagazineforyoungpeople.Skye http://www.confused.co.uk/ Dazed andConfused avoided thesubjectentirely. butwhichactually electioninformation, provided beexpectedtohave those whichcouldreasonably engaging withit.Thefollowinglistofsitesincludes Escaping theelectiononlinewasfareasierthan Escaping theelection • sophisticated ways,to graphs andgraphicsinsimilar, ifslightlyless couched inaccessiblelanguagewithgooduseof forMuslimvotersandwas This siteactedasaresource election issues from theelectionitself. election issuesfrom theyextractthe by avoidingpoliticiansandtheparties thatworkswell–but sites takeonacampaigningrole closely toParliamentandtheMPsthemselves.The doisconnectusersmore What thesesitesrarely their votemaymakeadifference. ordownloadingsomegraphicsthatillustratehow board inanonlinepetition,talkingonatalk participating technology byfacilitatingonlineaction–forexample, position insociety. Theyempowerusersviathenew their written bypeoplewhounderstandandshare specificissueandwishtoobtaindetailedinformation a userswhohave successful atattractingyounginternet Theyappeartobe interact, usingtheinternet. to andopportunities information users byproviding theirspecific Issue sitesseektoempowerandinform their viewsonMuslimissues. tofindoutaboutthePPCsand ‘click-throughs’ FaxYourMP.com. MPLocataand Links totheParliamentary theonlinestudentsectionof – Dazed isn’t doinganyspecificfeatures.’ Gay Vote . Telegraph It included: • • • • • conjunction withBBC Societyin bytheHansard thecountry across themockelectionsrun This sitewassetuptosupport http://www.learn.co.uk/yvote Y-Vote MockElectionScheme onlyahomepagewithmissionstatement. Provided http://www.britishasian.f9.co.uk/mission.htm British AsianYouth Alliance news. onlyentertainment Provided http://www.asians.com/ Asians.com • in thischapter. theexamplesconsidered from mainconclusionsthatcanbe drawn three are There happen onlinethatcouldnothave happenedotherwise? Did thisonlineactivityhaveanyimpact?anything (3) Diditmakeadifference? debate are stillavailableforreference. debate are withkeynotespeakersineach debates. Interviews intelligent andinsightfulcontributionstoonline abletomake inpoliticalissuesandare interested abletoshowthattheywere The under-18swere weeks. attracted over1,000contributionsthree thevotingageto16.Thedebates and reducing debate abouttopicalissuessuchasfoxhunting,crime to youngpeopletheopportunity debates, offering theonline ofthesitewere The mostsuccessfulpart people involvedinpolitics. andday-to-dayworkof pupils aninsightintotheroles gave teachingmaterialandtheinterviews further teacherswith provided campaign workers.Articles withMPs,politicalcommentatorsand interviews and voting,aninteractiveguidetoParliament aboutelections articles Also availableatthesitewere ofCitizenship. political literacyaspart stillavailableforschoolsteaching Lesson plansare indemocracyandvoting. to takeanactiveinterest andencouragetheunder-18s apathy intheclassroom designedtohelpteacherstacklevoter ideas were Newsround intheBBC schoolstakingpart was designedtosupport the Societyand withtheHansard inpartnership Produced Guardian’s An interactiveguidetoParliament. Lesson plansforallkeystages. Calendar ofelectionevents. policy positions. andtheir Descriptions oftheparties Online discussionforums. more frequently thanadailynewspaperorweekly frequently more Thewebcanbeupdated news andinformation. ofnon-biased source primarily toaccessatrusted Firstly, youngpeopleseemedtouse theinternet Hansard schoolsmock election.Lesson Hansard new educationalwebsite,theY-Vote site Newsround and Learn.co.uk .

53 Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

magazine and can contain a depth of information Young people were not very well served online during and back-catalogue of articles that no other this election. For each site that did make allowances for resource could sustain. Jenny Bristow of Spiked the election, at least another 50 avoided it altogether. said: ‘I’m not aware of any sites in particular that This confirms the supposition that young people cannot engaged young voters. As far as I know the sites and do not wish to associate themselves with traditional they favour in relation to politics are the media sites politics. If young people wished to find election news – they use these to get information and to find out and comment they could find it easily. If they wished what the debates are. I cannot imagine any site that to discuss the election with their peers, that was was self-consciously ‘political’ being anything more somewhat more difficult. If they wished to interact than a turn-off for young people today. As for Spiked with politicians or candidates online, that was almost – I think we did better than anybody else at impossible. Young people’s lack of connection with providing a lively, interesting debate about the politics is a far more wide-reaching problem than issues. Clearly we didn’t go a bundle on the simple turnout figures. Some web sites addressed the gimmicks because we prioritise comment, news problem of connection well, but there is much more and debate above all.’ The gimmicks on the party that could be done. The internet made a small sites (such as text messages and downloads) contribution towards re-connecting young people to amused for a while, could definitely not have been politics during this election – but it is down to the delivered offline, and attracted positive media citizenship education curriculum, political institutions, attention – but failed to engage younger voters Parliament and MPs to re-connect with young people more deeply in the election process. (and the population as a whole) before the problems will be solved. Young people just weren’t ‘up 4 it’ and • Secondly, in terms of voting outcomes – the net neither was most of the internet. may have had a minor influence. The NUS site claimed to have influenced turnout – particularly in Nicola Hall is researcher on the Hansard marginal constituencies such as Guildford where e-democracy programme the Liberal Democrats took a Tory seat. The gathering together of like-minded people onto one web site could have electoral outcomes. Footnotes Furthermore, from the volumes of young people 1. Source: MORI, September 2000 available at using the web, it is reasonable to expect that those www.mori.co.uk/about/news/ash.htm who did vote made more informed and educated 2. Source: Office of National Statistics, March 2001 decisions based on what they read online. available at • Thirdly, issue-based sites have a large impact in the www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/internet1200.pdf+level online world. Sites catering for young gay people or s+of+uk+internet+usage&hl=en young Muslims offered relevant information 3. Moriarty, 27 March 2001 "Poll reveals apathy of pitched at the right level, and facilities to interact first time voters’ The Guardian. Available at (such as some online discussions or online petitions) http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election2001/story/0 which utilised the interactive characteristics of the ,9029,463886,00.htm internet well. These sites were few and far between, 4. The findings in this chapter are based on e-mail and but through their interactivity demonstrated that telephone interviews with various site developers participation in the election could be done online and web masters, and in-depth internet searches at where it couldn’t be done elsewhere. The internet regular intervals during the election period. offers a level playing field so that voices of interest 5. White, Bruce and Ritchie 2000 ‘Young People’s groups usually marginalised by the mainstream Politics: Political Interest and engagement amongst media can participate. The internet provided a 14-24 year olds’ Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York. mechanism for the under-represented to represent themselves during the election. This manifested 6. Press release for White, Bruce and Ritchie 2000, 1 itself in sites ranging from online humour and ‘Young People’s Politics: Political Interest and games to online petitions. engagement amongst 14-24 year olds’ Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York available at www.jrf.org.uk/pressroom/releases/150500.htm. 7. Survey for Adam Smith Institute available at www.mori.com/polls/2000/adamsmit.htm 8. Some of whom are not even old enough to vote, including Matthew Hanney, the web master. 9. Pokemon is a Japanese style cartoon popular amongst younger age groups. 10. Text taken from the web site itself during May 2001. 11. Text taken from the web site itself during May 2001. Were they up 4 it? What did the internet do for first-time voters?

54 Greg Sedberry Even politicale-mailispersonal viewfromtheStates. A theregister.co.uk titled In aJunearticle soeffective? we missthemarkifallofthese sites were did in eachelectioncycleforyearsto come.Sowhere andwewillseethem impact onthecampaignprocess accepted ashavingan the 30-secondTVad,theyare campaigncommunity.foundation fortheinternet Like thestaplesofcampaignwebsites.The new These are sway personaldecisions. to interactivity totheuserexperience.Eachinaneffort toadd users onthego.Andalitanyofspecialfeatures wishing toengageinpersonalaction.Mobileaccessfor Volunteer sign-upcapabilitiesforthepoliticallyactive for theundecided.Donationlinksdecided. postedforthemedia. Policyinformation were releases usersup-to-date.Press internet politically interested e-mailsubscriptionstokeep political siteoffered technology wassound.Thecodedynamic.Eachmajor cleanandcrisp,oftentrendy.the siteswere The innumbers.InboththeUKandUS seeking strength theseconstituentsinthelastelectioncycle targeted andcampaignsintheUSUK Political parties online permonthathome. home. TheUKdataestimatesatotalofsixhoursspent nineandahalfhoursonlineat spent approximately users. NielsencitesthatinMay2001,USwebusers numbers 167.1millionUSand22.6UKhome universe Ratings estimatesthattheMayinternet influencedbyaccessanduse.NielsenNet directly inpoliticalcampaignsis The impactoftheinternet decision making?Ordotheydelvedeeper? do salsa–basedonthelabeland30secondsof bills andjunkmail?DovoterschoosecandidateslikeI mailleafletmixedinwith second adonTV?Oradirect voting time.Butisitpersonal?Howpersonala30- personaldecisionscome This massappealaffects voters intheUShavebeenTV, mail. radio,anddirect Thedominantvehiclesforcampaignstoattract day. influence theelectorate'spersonaldecisionsonelection questionishowto For candidates,themostimportant personalresults. their desired theyfeelcanbestguidethemto the politicalfigure tothevotingbooth,maketheirmarkinfavourof trek Thosewhodo others todictatetheirpersonalresults. Some choosetosidestepthevotingboothandallow theleaderstheyplaceinoffice. from personal results election, citizensmakepersonaldecisionsandexpect Each daily lifeofallconstituentsinagivenregion. impactingonthe personal. Politicsislocal,directly todictatemyexistence.Politicsis upon adesire ofmypersonaldecisionsisbased The dailyrealisation decision; eachonewithapersonalresult. answer andwhichtoignore.Eachoneapersonal listen to,whichmovietowatchande-mails which brandofsalsatobuy,radiostation madesomebolddecisionsyesterday.Idecided I addressed thenumberoneproblem addressed Political Parties Faile-Lectorate, Political Parties personal capacity. 2000 Bush-Cheneycampaign.He iswritingina waswebstrategymanagerforthe Greg Sedberry personal result. their personaldecision.Onelection dayitistheir byanotherbrand ofsalsa.Itis or theywillbereplaced totheirconstituencies either findthemeanstorespond personalisation era.Candidatesandcampaignswill persuasioninthe powerbehindinternet the real ability toconnectpersonallywithvotersviae-mailis the dedicatedattentionofallpoliticalcampaigns.The anddevelopment tofindtheanswerisworth research the solution?I’mnotthatgood.However, a Is there one. campaign andadangerous internet E-mail isthefinelinebetweenaneffective not personalappeal.E-mailispersonal.local. massappeal,but potentatcreating lives andtheyare notpersonal.Wemail are engagetheminourpersonal The lionsofthecampaignworld,TV, radio,anddirect withlinks? their e-mailisacannedautoresponse of acandidateifthepersonalresult voter tosupport stagnant website.Howpersonalisthat?likelya ona oflinkspointing users toinformation widearray a with The band-aidinthepasthasbeenauto-responders the candidate. personalcontactwith atacampaignrepresent directed with thecandidate.Iarguethate-mailinquiries topersonalcontact campaigncannotcompare internet answering asinglee-mail.Somehavestatedthatan timetheyleaveasinglevotercoldbynot deaths every million isastatistic.Politicalcampaignsdiethousand It hasbeensaidthatonedeathisatragedyand ratherthanresponses. problems franticforasolutionandconcentrateontechnical run Systemadministrators thebarrage. needed toharness stability ofthenetworkandlackstoragespace –itisthe isnotresponse At thatpoint,theproblem personalwhen10,000showupinlessthananhour.are thate-mails forcampaignstoremember It isdifficult toe-mails.Canthecandidateapologise?No. responding thedamagedonebynot the worldcannotovercome booth? Yes. mostfunctionalwebsitein Thetrendiest, into accountwhentheymaketheirmarkatthevoting Yes. notanswered? their e-mailsare Dotheytakethis one,Iremember.receive when Dovotersremember type ane-mailtoafriend,Iexpectanswer. IfIdon’t WhenI answered. ‘Netiquette’ demandsthate-mailsare cycle. intheUSduring2000election occurred problem toe-mails.Thesame deficientinresponding party SocietystudywhichfoundeachUKpolitical Hansard highlightedthe answer allthesee-mails?Thearticle campaign;HowdoI internet experienced byevery

55 A view from the States. Even political e-mail is personal Conclusions and recommendations Stephen Coleman

• The 2001 election was not fought out on the something about how people view politics and internet. The internet played a peripheral, but particularly politicians. significant, role – especially for younger voters. • The media rose to the occasion in 2001 and • 18% voters with internet access used the net as an provided some excellent online resources. information resource in the 2001 election. 21% of One in 10 people with internet access went to online 18-24 year-olds used the net to find out what these sites for election information, especially after the parties stood for. the polls closed. Next time, they will play an even bigger role; there are lessons to be learned from • By the time of the next general election, many the inventiveness of BBC News Online and more people will be connected to the internet. It Guardian Politics. will by then be a much more sophisticated medium; the lessons from 2001 will be crucial in setting an • There was plenty of scope for online discussion in e-politics agenda for the future, including the hotly- 2001, but it was remarkably dominated by a few contested euro referendum in which the battle to people - overwhelmingly males. The absence of supply trusted information will be highly significant. women from the national online dialogue tells much about the state of political discourse in the UK. • The party web sites in 2001 made use of the Next time, special efforts should be made to unmediated nature of the internet and its include women and the less opinionated. multimedia functionalities. They did not exploit the net’s capacity for interactivity and • E-politics in 2001 was primarily an extension of personalisation. Next time, they should. political marketing. E-democracy is about more than that. In the period between now and the next • Candidate web sites were generally dull and election the internet should be used much more to uninspiring. Next time, they should make efforts to connect citizens to their representatives and to the brand their web sites throughout their campaign policy-making process. People will take elections material (as happened in the US 2000 election), more seriously if they are voting for something that relate their sites more to their constituencies and takes them seriously. The internet offers important provide more targeted information for groups of opportunities to involve citizens in a strengthened electors, such as young people, the elderly, women. form of representative democracy. • Tactical voter sites helped to raise the profile of • The internet will not go away, but it will evolve into voters’ power in ousting least-favoured candidates new forms. Analogue switch-off and the growth of and probably changed the results in two digital TV present possibilities for taking the net constituencies. Online tactical voting will not go into the more traditional information environments away in future elections. The Electoral Commission of people’s homes. needs to monitor it. • Humour and games web sites mushroomed in Dr Stephen Coleman 2001. They caught the mood of the electorate, Director, Hansard e-democracy programme particularly the young. The messages from these sites should not be missed; they are saying Conclusions and recommendations

56 2001 ElectionWeb Directory www.williamhague.org.uk www.westandforscotland.org www.votegreen.org.uk www.uup.org www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk www.socialistalliance.net www.sinnfein.ie www.sdlp.ie www.plaidcymru2001.com www.libdems.org.uk www.labour.org.uk www.greenparty.org.uk www.dup.org.uk www.cix.co.uk/~ldys www.conservatives.com Political partyweb sites www.angelfire.com/mp/dimblebingo www.amielectableornot.com/ Humour sites laent htsm fteaoestswr takendownaftertheelection. Please notethatsome oftheabovesiteswere www.williamhague.com www.tonyblair.co.uk www.thebrainstrust.co.uk/yatb www.spinon.co.uk www.sirsearchlot.com/biffa.htm www.pedigreedogs.co.uk/enter.htm www.panlogic.co.uk/splat_the_MP.html www.newstatesman.co.uk/fantasypolitics www.newlabour.co.uk www.mylittletony.com www.mulletsgalore.com www.mtv.co.uk/content/fun/games/stereo_mps/index.html www.mikecowley.co.uk/ncdmv/index.htm www.guydowman.com/Images/a-team.shtml www.grandad.freeuk.com/carstickers.htm www.fantasyelection2001.com www.emailpolitics.com www.crouchingtony.com www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~m6chan/2001_uk/index.html

57 2001 Election Web Directory 2001 Election Web Directory

Tactical voting sites www.lindagilroy.org.uk www.keepthetoriesout.co.uk www.michaelportillo.co.uk www.stophague.com www.robertkey.com/homepage.htm www.tacticalvoter.net Practical sites www.toryfreescotland.com www.postalvotes.co.uk http://users.eastlink.ca/~srgl/election2001.htm www.rollingregistration.co.uk www.votebasingstoke.f25s.com www.votedorset.net Special interest sites www.advocacyonline.net/learn_say.jsp Political portals www.makethecrosscount.com www.epolitix.com www.mori.com/election2001/ec0529.shtml www.generalelectionsite.co.uk www.votesmart.org.uk www.lineone.net/cgi- bin/vote2/election/vote/election_results.html?question Young people’s sites =electionresultspromo&choice=0 www.amnesty.org.uk/student www.parliamentaryelection.com www.asians.com www.ukelect.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/election http://uk.news.yahoo.com/election2001 www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/election/electionindex.shtml www.ukpolitics.org.uk www.britishasian.f9.co.uk/mission.htm www.voxpolitics.com www.byc.org.uk www.yougov.co.uk www.confused.co.uk/frameset.htm Media sites www.culturewars.org.uk www.bbc.co.uk/livechat www.dfee.gov.uk/youngpeople/index.shtml www.bbc.co.uk/londonlive/metropol/election/ www.guiltyparty.cc index.shtml www.learn.co.uk/yvote www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today www.limbbylimb.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/talkingpoint www.nusonline.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/vote2001 www.nya.org.uk www.channel4.com/plus/election2001 www.wales.gov.uk/youngvoice www.channel4news.co.uk/sweepstake/index.html www.ruup4it.org.uk www.ft.com www.spiked-online.com/sections/central/index.htm www.independent.co.uk www.studentuk.co.uk www.itn.co.uk/election www.student-world.co.uk/cgi- http://metro.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/election/ bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=Worlds poll.html /Student-World/Templates/Default http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election2001 www.thesite.org.uk www.sky.com/skynews/politics www.yourturn.net/PAGECZC%23%23%23%23%23%23%23000 01353.vdf www.telegraph.co.uk www.youthnet.org.uk www.thetimes.co.uk www.youth.org.uk/frame.htm Candidate sites www.whatnow.co.uk www.allan4hallam.org.uk www.bellforbrentwood.com Discussion fora http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/120743 www.cheadlelabour.org.uk www.newsgate.co.uk/uk/index.html#uk.politics.electoral www.eddavey.org.uk www.politicaldebate.co.uk www.keepingyoung.org.uk 2001 Election Web Directory

58 More connections… greater expectations

Just as other leaders in the internet industry, I am often challenged on the issue of the ‘digital divide’. Of course industry and government must work together to ensure that as many people as possible get affordable access to the internet. But digital inclusion is about much more than just access to technology. It is about making sure that people get access to the information or content that they want, presented in ways which inspire them to engage, react and participate in their community, in society and in the democratic process.

By the time of the next election, most, if not all, of the population will have access to internet technology, whether through the PC, digital TV, mobile phone or other means. Those currently in their early teens, already well versed in the use of new technology as a communication tool, will be first-time voters. Some people will have been net users for around 20 years. Expectations will increase as more people become used to using the net as a key communication tool. We know, from a number of events over the last year or so, that the internet can be a highly successful medium through which activists can organise and motivate people to action. We need to find ways to harness this power to improve the quality of life of all citizens in the UK.

The trick will be fully understanding how people respond to online communication and what they expect from politicians and other opinion leaders. If we can reduce the number of disenchanted voters and re-engage people’s interest and participation in parliamentary democracy, this will be a great prize.

We welcome the work being done by the Hansard Society in this area and see this publication as a major contribution to understanding.

Andy Green Chief Executive, BTopenworld

59 ISBN 0 900432 40 3 The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and the Hansard Society, as an independent non-party organisation, is neither for nor against. The Society is, however, happy to publish these views and to invite analysis and discussion of them.