Trickle up Politics? Hansard Society Event ‘The internet and the 2005 General Election’ Portcullis House, 18th April 2007 Professor Rachel Gibson, University of Leicester

Right questions? Are we asking the right questions and tapping into the right kinds of behaviours and activities that can allow us to fully understand the effects of the internet on political engagement? New forms of participation: visiting a political organisations‘ website signing up for an e-news bulletin; sending an e-postcard from a political organisations’ website or forwarding a viral email from a friend. downloading software (screensavers etc.) from a political organisation’s website; posting material on youtube or your pages in social networking sites posting messages to a news/campaign blogsite

SELF-REPORTED INFLUENCE OF THE INTERNET BY DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS. Age Below 35 35 and above All More interest in the election 22.3% 15.0% 18.4 % Helped make a better informed choice * 24.2% 12.4% 17.8 % Encouraged to vote * 12.9% 6.2% 16.2 % Confirmed vote decision 18.2% 14.5% 9.3 % Changed vote decision 4.0% 1.9% 3.5 % Encouraged to vote tactically 4.0% 3.1% 2.9 % Encouraged to take part in the campaign 2.1% .9% 1.5 % Overall had some effect * 62.7% 43.8% 52.5 % Q12. Thinking about the information and news about the election you read or received online, do you think it .....? internet users who looked for or came across information about the election, n = 401. * = difference is statistically significant at p < 0.05. Source: Ward, S. and W. Lusoli (2006) ‘Logging On or Switching Off?’ in Spinning the Web: online campaigning in the 2005 General election’ Hansard Society, London: www.hansardsociety.org.uk/assets/Final_HANSARD_ONLINE_A5.pdf

Right tools? Are we using the right tools and methods to measure political activity in the online environment? Ex. 1 2007 Youtube anti-Clinton video ‘Big Brother’ theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo Ex. 2 2004 JibJab Flash Cartoon ‘This Land’

Trickle-up Politics Based around Web 2.0 technologies Difficult to measure/capture but irrelevant to political process? New modes of study required – user-centric web tracking tools, online experiments and focus groups. Effects?

For Further Information Please see: http://www.esri.salford.ac.uk/ESRCResearchproject/ the website is updated weekly through i-blog, a weblog on Internet and politics   our research projects are filed in the projects section   our papers, publications and data are all included in the ouput section   links to research on Internet and politics are filed under resources   our bios are under people, should you feel adventurous.