Politics

The next general election will be won and lost on the internet

Wednesday, 6th June 2007

Most elections produce a defining campaign event. In 1979 it was Margaret Thatcher’s enlistment of Saatchi & Saatchi and the ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ posters. In 1987 it was the party political broadcast that became known as ‘Kinnock The Movie’. The year 1992 is remembered for the Tories’ devastatingly negative tax bombshell broadcasts.

The next campaign is likely to be remembered as Britain’s first internet election. It will certainly be the first election when a large proportion of stories is broken by bloggers. It could be the first election when the best political ads are made on the home computers of political geeks rather than in the glassy offices of expensive advertising agencies. It will be the first election when the mainstream media aren’t just fact-checking the politicians but when they’ll get bias-checked themselves. As Google’s CEO recently told Matthew d’Ancona on The Spectator’s Coffee House blog: in this new political era everyone has a camera-phone, everyone is a blogger, everyone is a reporter.

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Dunvar

June 8th, 2009 11:18pm Report this comment

as a former tory party agent and a new commer to consevative home I can see the influence of bloggers in future elections. too many campaigners forget at their peril that voters want their aspirations to be the directing force for policy progession not the politicians desires. i remember the 50s when the tories had over 50 seats in Scotland.They did not listen to what the Scottish Electors wanted, They now have 1 MP and about16% support .

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