Election special

Photo: Victoria Crampton

The UK 2010 General Election, which must take place within the next 70 days, could be one of the most interesting for a very long time. With the polls constantly showing a narrow margin between the major parties, it is the first since 1992 when the outcome has not been fairly clear from long before the contest was called. The closeness of the contest will clearly shape the campaign.

The complexities of the campaign environment, as noted by Mark Pack, highlight the difficulties the competitors face. The parties have to set out their respective stalls very clearly in order to persuade voters of their credibility to take over, or remain in, power. Their ability to do this will be crucial, particularly when trying to engage with the youth vote – discussed by Lucy Hird. They need to present a leader and team that appear to possess all the credentials required by all sections of the public to manage the nation.

I use the word ‘appear’ deliberately, harking back to the words of Machiavelli. The election is likely not to be decided on the weight of factual evidence, but on glimpses, appearances and shadows that cumulate to allow perceptual judgements. Opinions of Brown as authentic or out of touch, caring but introvert or a psychologically flawed bully, the man culpable in the impact of the global recession or the only man equipped to design national recovery: all are perceptions. These, and similar perceptions of Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, a variety of party figures including local representatives and of the parties themselves will largely decide the outcome. But it will probably be the leaders that are key figures and, as two of our articles here note, the contest is anyone’s to win but may just be Gordon Brown’s to lose.

Public relations tools are at the heart of any campaign and an election is no difference; however electoral political contests can be differentiated in two important ways. Firstly, we should note that the directly competitive nature of electioneering shapes the campaign. While we may find campaigns in many contexts engaged in war of words via the media, election campaigns see parties fight for the front pages and to dominate the television and online news agenda. They seek the repetition and reinforcement of their messages by journalists and demand as much airtime as possible while also demanding scrupulous impartiality from the media. Secondly, political election campaigns can often talk as much about the opponent as the party itself. Due to the importance of perceptions, parties may spend a large amount of their communication comparing their stance with that of opponents or making outright attacks on opponent’s policies or personalities. Essentially these tactics have been used for a considerable time already, with both Labour and the Conservatives engaging in a phoney election campaign, and will only accelerate as the election date nears.

These elements are however old news. The war for coverage may be more intense and the negativity may be greater, nastier and more personal but these are established features of election campaigns. Less predictable will be the effect that the internet plays in shaping the campaign as well as public perceptions of parties and candidates. While websites have been a feature of campaigns for the last decade, 2010 will see a range of interactive Web 2.0 features employed by many parties. Furthermore the campaign will be played out across new platforms such as the social network Facebook, microblog Twitter and filesharing sites, particularly YouTube.

All of these allow the online user to have a much greater role in the campaign and both Jag Singh and James Knight argue parties need to allow greater co-creation of the campaign and allow voters to interact with the party and their key figures. Within party created sites and profiles there will therefore be some elements of co-creation of content, but across the online environment there is already a substantial amount of political content created by a range of individuals and organisations. The amount of election related user generated content is likely to increase to match the parties’ campaign intensity. Some will be supportive of parties, some attacking one party, some arguing for alternative democratic arrangements. This new terrain could have a significant effect on the campaign, but it may be harder to detect with much online communication going below the radar.

Overall it promises to be a fascinating contest. Given the closeness turnout is likely to be higher than in the previous two contests, engagement will certainly be encouraged in the marginal seats but due to the media coverage could be high across the country. The outcome is hard to predict, and appearing to be closer and less predictable all the time. With the mouth-watering prospect of a hung parliament this could be a fascinating time for politics with public relations playing a key role for communicating with voters, the represented, coalition partners, the business community and investors. Politics is the most complex environment involving an array of publics and media and never more so than during elections; and GE2010 promises to showcase all the complexities like seldom before.

Dr Darren G. Lilleker
Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Public Communication Research, Bournemouth University