Targeting Persuadable Voters Through Social Media: The Use of Twitter in The 2015 UK General Election

How do political campaigns target and persuade voters to support their candidates? Since 2000, US political campaigns have focused heavily on data analytics to micro target individual voters with personalized messages. Micro targeting moves away from the traditional assumption that voting behavior is determined purely by demographics. Instead, this method allows campaigns to predict accurately an individual’s voting behavior and deliver to them the most appropriate message. This paper focuses on the use of social media by the Labour and Conservative campaigns in the 2015 UK General Election and whether it was employed as a targeting tool and a method to engage with targeted voters. More specifically, it examines the claim that Labour used social media purely to communicate with its core supporters whilst Conservatives used it effectively to target and engage with persuadable voters and this ultimately contributed to the Conservatives’ victory.

Author

• Roper, Caitlin Grace

Language

• en

Keyword

• Political campaigns
• UK General Election
• Digital Targeting
• Campaigns
• Twitter

Date created

• 2016

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Media and Public Affairs

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Karpf, David

Committee Member(s)

• Hindman, Matthew
• Cornfield, Michael

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/47429926v