Cutting out the middleman – political actors use of disintermediated communication via Facebook during the UK General Election of 2017

Description

Political actors are increasingly curating their own audiences via social media, communicating directly with their supporters and bypassing political reporters and commentators. From Donald Trump to Jeremy Corbyn, politicians are finding that they can rouse supporters without recourse to a traditional media that tries to balance or mediate their message through its ownfilters. This paper will analyse the use of Facebook by political actors to communicate with voters during the UK’s snap election of 2017. Taking a quantitative approach, it will identify the key strategic themes and tactical approaches taken by the major parties and the party leaders over the course of the short campaign. It will consider to what extent the unexpected election and its surprising result were as a result of the motivation of voters through Facebook communities of interest.

Period	24 Jul 2018
Event title	IPSA World Congress of Political Science
Event type	Conference
Location	Brisbane, AustraliaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International