The rise of digital politics: social media and political engagement

A new report from Demos, released yesterday, has continued the conversation surrounding the role that social media plays in political engagement. Twitter and Facebook are now a platform for groups who largely reject the political establishment to engage in a non-traditional way. With social media beginning to play a key role, what does the future of democratic engagement hold?

Since last year’s general election and the EU referendum in June, the role of social media in galvanising groups who would otherwise not engage, and perhaps don’t actually vote, has become more apparent. As outlined in yesterday’s report, social media is at its strongest when it comes to encouraging engagement from 18-24 year olds.

This group is least likely to vote or have an attachment to a particular party, yet it’s the second most likely group to use social media for politics, something which is particularly important considering the steep decline in voter turnout in recent years. This decline has been an area of concern for parliamentarians and in particular, those parties which don’t enjoy the reliability of the ‘grey vote’ as the Conservatives do.

The question now is how this new political space can translate into better democratic outcomes. While some envision the political conversations we see on social media leading to more votes cast on election days, there is still a major disconnect between the ease of writing online and actually voting: a large proportion of social media users are happy to talk about politics online but far less eager to cast a vote.

This is one of the fundamental issues concerning the relationship between social media and politics: there is still some way to go before we see political conversations translate into this kind of democratic action. The Demos report gives some recommendations for social media to be used in this way:

• Listen to the electorate and treat social media as a two-way street

• Recognise new online groups and mobilisations, and the power they yield

• Move from online discussions to something that can contribute towards the political decisions that are taken

• Be aware of the dangers of digital exclusion