The Leaders’ Debate

Last night saw the first ever TV election debate in the UK, only 50 years behind the US and just in time to catch everyone talking about the first internet election. However, if social media traffic around last night’s offering is anything to go by, the advent of the digital age seems only to have intensified interest in the TV debates. As the chart below shows this was more exciting than a volcanic eruption or the prospect of travelling to Mars.

Source: Cision Social Media

The majority of activity was on micromedia with Tweetminster reporting an astounding 180,000 tweets on the subject during the debate itself. This of course shows an incredible amount of interest, but did it advance the debate much? I followed the #leadersdebate hashtag on Twitter throughout the debate and one of the most insightful comments came from nineteen year old RickyTicky “Tomorrow’s news will be full of what role twitter played in the #LeadersDebate, when really we’re all just making silly jokes.” Regardless of the quality of the jokes (minority bingo, X-factor or snog/marry/avoid anyone?) the level of traffic was enormous, both Tweetminster and the Facebook dial failed during the debate.

Most of the mainstream media outlets had live blogs reporting the debate, these generally consisted of quick summaries of the leaders statements and updates from social media, though the balance differed considerably. The consensus of opinion in the mainstream media and in the snap polls is that Nick Clegg outperformed the other two leaders, with David Cameron ahead of Gordon Brown depending who you ask. This is reflected somewhat in the share of comment on social media, with Nick Clegg getting the largest slice of pie, but David Cameron is running him a close second.

A conversation cloud around the word “winner” and sentiment analysis give a clearer picture that this was a good night for the LibDems.

Whether Mr Clegg will be returning to his constituency and preparing for government remains to be seen, but the TV debate – and the social media reation to it – certainly seem to have widened the campaign beyond the trading of blows between the two heavyweights we’ve all become accustomed to.

At this point I must declare an interest: I’ve just had Nick Clegg crisps for breakfast.

If you’d like to find out what the key political bloggers and columnists are saying about the debate and the election check out Cision’s Top 10 political blogs and magazines.