CASE STUDIES - media and politics

2019 Election

• Low News engagement - especially with young people (18-34) - limited effects model - audience disengaged from media

• Social media users accessed more diverse sources - opposing views - challenging echo chamber - supporting pluralist theories

• Political ads on social media had low recall (14%) - weak direct persuasion and reinforcing 2-step flow theory

• TV debates - strong influence - seen through social media clips - media convergence vs media replacement

2017 election

• Labour used social media more than Torys incl, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - Corbyn younger voters

• Decline of traditional media influence - negative press of Labour in newspapers - party exceeded expectations - social media reduced agenda-setting dominance of print media

• Social media limitation - did not prevent Tory win - supporting limited effects theory - social media influences engagement more than final vote choice

2015 Election

• Tory spent 100,00 pounds per month on Facebook ads

• Labour spent significantly less on Facebook ads - £16,000 overall directly

• large spending gap - money can influence digital campaigning -where tv and radio are banned

• showed the growing importance of unregulated online political advertising - concerns about fairness, transparency

2024 Election

• all major parties most active on X

• Lab and Tory posted more frequently than other parties

• Reform, used TikTok the ,most - short, personality-driven content around Farage

• Labour had most followers across all platforms - Reform gained fastest follower growth - Torys weak engagement and follower growth

• Lab spent £2.4 million on social media = 70% of all party digital ad spend

• Torys = £900,000

• Greens and Lib Dems = £60-70k each