Twitter has never been friendly to British politicians. From MPs’ gaffes that spread across the platform like wildfire to the incessant trolling, it can’t make good bedtime reading for anyone on the front benches. Most MPs would probably dismiss most of what they read on Twitter as either stupid or horrible.
But as we approach the General Election, the volume of chatter is starting to get louder. Increasing numbers of people are turning to Twitter to have their say in the run up to May 2015. Much of it is neither stupid nor horrible.
In work being done by the Centre for Social Media Analysis (CASM) for the Sunday Times, we have begun to analyse the million or so tweets sent to MPs and PPCs over the last three weeks. The currency we deal in is ‘cheers and boos’, which we analyse using specialist software. A tweet classed as a ‘cheer’ is usually praise, or a message of thanks or encouragement:
– @ChukaUmunna seems very pro localism, abolish fptp and more local representation and devolution.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in