In recent years there’s been a general move towards political parties trying to use new technologies to engage citizens in ever more innovative ways. If there’s a latest web trend, you can bet your shirt that politicians will be all over it like a political rash. In the London mayoral elections we’ve seen Brian Paddick Twittering, Boris rally his legions on Facebook, and all candidates push their latest campaign films on YouTube.
Yet beyond these fairly mainstream campaign activities, there are signs of underhand new media tactics. In previous campaigns such moves would usually go unnoticed, but you can now use monitoring services like Opinion Tracker (which I set up) to monitor what people are doing and saying across the internet.
Possibly the most interesting under-the-radar campaign activity to surface in this year’s campaign is the rise of what I call “Tube-stepping.” Tube-stepping is a cross between the old journalistic trick of doorstepping and the new Asbo-generation technique of “happy-slapping,” and involves “members of the public” (actually they usually seem to be largely party activists) asking candidates difficult questions, catching their stuttering responses on a video phone and then posting these films on YouTube for the world to see (and laugh at).
So far Boris’s activists seem to be most adept at tube-stepping, with a whole campaign being orchestrated by a group calling itself Comrade Fidel. Team Ken have also had a go, taking a more conventional approach.
Looking at the numbers of views each of the films have got, I’m not sure tube-stepping is going to have much effect in this election. But no doubt we’ll be see bigger and better campaigns in the future.
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