Abstract
AbstractThis paper examines how new media is affecting candidate personal vote seeking behaviour, at the constituency level by comparing data from general elections in two countries with different styles of campaigning – party-centred campaigning in the United Kingdom (2015 & 2017) and candidate-centred campaigning Japan (2014 & 2017). By utilising both content analysis of candidates’ use of new media platforms and in-person interviews with candidates, this study gives a deep description of how individual candidates are using online campaigning and to what degree they are pursuing a personal, rather than party vote. This study confirms that that Japanese candidates use new media to run more candidate centred campaigns, replicating traditional campaign styles, but also finds that other factors, namely candidates’ levels of experience and the strength of the national party, play a role in how candidates utilise new media. Now more so than ever, candidates are relying on personal image promotion as a major element of their campaigns.
Highlights
With an increasing level of internet diffusion and the adoption of online campaigning by political actors, the advent of new media on campaigning raises questions about what effect it may have on candidate behaviour
One question which arises out of the ability for political candidates to take control of their own campaign narrative is ‘Does new media encourage constituency level candidates to pursue a more personalised vote?’ This paper aims to explain what factors encourage candidates to pursue personal vote seeking strategies online by comparing candidates in two countries with very different campaign traditions – the United Kingdom and Japan
While the way in which social media allows candidates to interact with members of the public and present a more personalised image is an important part of pursuing the personal vote, it is of interest to see what policies candidates are promoting, especially those which are constituency-specific, as these can be regarded as signs of autonomy from the central party
Summary
With an increasing level of internet diffusion and the adoption of online campaigning by political actors, the advent of new media on campaigning raises questions about what effect it may have on candidate behaviour. New media is not transforming the way in which candidates campaign at the constituency level, but we are seeing examples of highly personal vote seeking behaviour even in systems where the focus of campaigning has traditionally been party-centred. To this extent, we can infer that the new social media are political tools that facilitate personalised campaigning and vote-seeking
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