Voting behavior

• • Social media now plays an important role in UK elections, with parties looking to advertise themselves on platforms.
  • Politicians can no communicate directly with voters.
  • In 2017 the Conservatives spent over £2 million on Facebook advertising, including adverts which attacked the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
  • Labour reached out to voters on Snapchat, with a Jeremy Corbyn Snapchat filter viewed over 9 million times.
• • Television remains important for providing information and news to voters, with the televised election debates in 2017 watched by millions of people.
  • Research by the Electoral Reform Society stated that a BBC Question Time Leaders’ show where both leaders spoke on tv and answered questions, helped 34% of voters to decide who to vote for.
• The Daily Telegraph often supports the Conservatives and The Guardian often supports Labour.

  • Parties have looked to project a positive image of themselves and their leaders in the media.
  • For example, Tony Blair hired a press secretary, Alastair Campbell, to ensure himself and the Labour Party were portrayed in the best possible light by the media during his time as PM.
• • Opinion polls look to determine how citizens will vote in elections.
  • Opinion polls are important in UK elections, with parties valuing their findings and conducting their own opinion polls.
  • The exit poll asks voters who they have voted after leaving the polling station and is released on the night of the election results.
• • Opinion polls have been inaccurate in past general elections, such as 2015 when it failed to predict that the Conservatives would win an overall majority.
  • Reasons include ‘shy Tories’ who vote for Conservatives but do not publicly admit to it and the ‘boomerang effect’ where voters who saw Labour leading in the polls and did not support them turned out to vote.
  • In recent years the exit poll has been more accurate.
  • Polling firms include Survation, Ipsos MORI and YouGov.
• • The media can influence voting behaviour, however, media alone is rarely a strong enough factor to change how people vote.
  • Media often confirms people’s own political views as people engage with media that reflects their beliefs.
  • The media does play a role because it can shape the political agenda through the way it covers issues and focuses on certain issues over others.
• • The winning party at all recent general elections were supported by the majority of newspapers, supporting the Conservatives in 2010, 2015 and 2017.
  • In 1992 the Sun published a headline against Labour leader Neil Kinnock on the day of the election which stated ‘If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights’.
• • TV can have an important role in influencing people’s impressions and opinions of party leaders.
  • Tv debates changed opinion polls in the 2010 election in favour of Nick Clegg.
• • Newspapers are partisan and biased, they may change their allegiance depending on a party’s ideology and also changing circumstances.
  • The Sun supported the tories in the 2010 general election, but, supported Blair in 1997 and supported Thatcher in 1979 because of her policies to weaken trade unions which suited the business interests of the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch.
• • TV can be more neutral coverage than newspapers. Parties are given agreed amounts of time for televised election broadcasts. Most tv channels are committed to being politically neutral.