Elections and the Internet

People

• Professor Helen Margetts

• Dr Scott A. Hale

• Dr Jonathan Bright

Publications

Blog

• Not Just #GE2015: Other 2015 Polling Failures

  Date Published: 21 July 2015 - 10:49 am

  Authors: Eve Ahearn

  The failure of pollsters in #GE2015 was covered widely, including in a previous post here, but it was not the only opinion polling failure ... Read More Not Just #GE2015: Other 2015 Polling Failures

• GE2015: Polling Problems vs. Information Seeking Biases

  Date Published: 31 May 2015 - 7:06 pm

  Authors: Eve Ahearn

  By my bedtime on the night of the last UK General Election, May 7 2015, one thing, at least, was clear. No matter who won, ... Read More GE2015: Polling Problems vs. Information Seeking Biases

• Digital era political parties post #GE2015

  Date Published: 19 May 2015 - 10:40 am

  Authors: Jonathan Bright

  Along with consultants and advisors and large-scale data management platforms from Obama’s hugely successful digital campaigns, all the main political parties used an arsenal ... Read More Digital era political parties post #GE2015

• Social Media + Elections: A Recap

  Date Published: 12 May 2015 - 9:18 am

  Authors: Eve Ahearn

  From Jonathan Bright and Scott Hale’s blog post on Twitter Use. In the run-up to the general election we conducted a number of investigations ... Read More Social Media + Elections: A Recap

• What if mentions were votes?

  Date Published: 7 May 2015 - 8:19 pm

  Authors: Jonathan Bright

  The last post looked at mention activity for each British constituency. What would happen if we took these mentions to be votes? Does this ... Read More What if mentions were votes?

• Which parties are having the most impact on Twitter?

  Date Published: 7 May 2015 - 4:46 pm

  Authors: Jonathan Bright

  The previous two posts have shown that the amount of effort parties are putting in on Twitter at the local level is pretty variable. ... Read More Which parties are having the most impact on Twitter?

• The (local) General Election on Twitter

  Date Published: 7 May 2015 - 12:36 pm

  Authors: Jonathan Bright

  The UK’s national election is decided on a constituency basis: 650 odd separate small elections, each returning one MP. Despite the obvious importance of ... Read More The (local) General Election on Twitter

• Wikipedia readership around the UK general election

  Date Published: 4 May 2015 - 10:13 pm

  Authors: Taha Yasseri

  I already have written about the Wikipedia-Shapps story. So, that is not the main topic of this post! But when that topic was still hot, some ... Read More Wikipedia readership around the UK general election

• Does anyone read Wikipedia around the election time?

  Date Published: 4 May 2015 - 10:04 pm

  Authors: Taha Yasseri

  I already have written about the Wikipedia-Shapps story. So, that is not the main topic of this post! But when that topic was still hot, some ... Read More Does anyone read Wikipedia around the election time?

• Online presence of the General Election Candidates: Labour wins Twitter while Tories take Wikipedia

  Date Published: 3 May 2015 - 12:17 pm

  Authors: Taha Yasseri

  Some have called the forthcoming UK general election a Social Media Election. It might be a bit of exaggeration, but there is no doubt that both ... Read More Online presence of the General Election Candidates: Labour wins Twitter while Tories take Wikipedia

• What does it mean to win a debate anyway?: Media Coverage of the Leaders’ Debates vs. Google Search Trends

  Date Published: 29 April 2015 - 3:27 pm

  Authors: Eve Ahearn

  Following the April 2nd Leaders’ Debate the media portrayed Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, as the victor of the night, ... Read More What does it mean to win a debate anyway?: Media Coverage of the Leaders’ Debates vs. Google Search Trends