Tristan Hotham Profile picture
Apr 6, 2021 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
🚨🚨 New working paper 🚨🚨

I examine what @PeoplesMomentum actually did for the @UKLabour during the 2017 Election #Facebook campaign - I develop further the concept of 'satellite campaigning' and originate the idea of 'Janus-faced campaigns' #arxiv 1/
osf.io/preprints/soca…
I find the #2017GE fascinating because it disrupts the targeted ads are everything narrative. Something was in the water and it was visible via Facebook. Since Facebook's audience has changed, but I still feel the case highlights the vitality of organic campaigns/satellites 2/ Image
#Methods: Quantitative content analysis of the organic posts sent by the pages one month before election day (excluding election day). I used over 800 variables, only some are in the paper. Others will be used later on. 3/
So what is Janus-faced campaigning? #Janusfacedcampaigning on Facebook gave the party the best of both worlds during the 2017 General Election. 4/ Image
From satellite #Momentum (via what I call 'new methods') the party was using novel content and participation forms to activate followers including pushing volunteering and just-turn-up style doorstep efforts. This fulfils some 'cyber party' ideals that break down party/public. 5/ Image
Momentum was placing a large amount of effort into activating their audience online and offline, this is in stark contrast the the Labour Party page that focused on broad brush stroke information, with any participation content seen focused on registering to vote/voting. 6/ Image
Via the party page (and somewhat Corbyn's page) Labour was recreating tried and tested approaches seen via traditional campaigning. Content was infographic heavy, with this traditional Facebook campaign focused on depersonalised info & policy, using Facebook like leaflets. 7/ Image
However, rather than your local Labour pavement campaign group these infographics would be shared by your mum. This was all the while Momentum was going exceedingly viral while Corbyn smashed viewing records for Labour's Live events all livestreamed on Facebook. Image
Corbyn's page acted more akin to a middle man, utilising less policy focus, instead operating as a passionate vehicle for partisanship/personalisation. This was about getting the public activated, for example registering to vote, spreading messages and undermining @theresa_may 9/ Image
Anyway, I will be working on it further to submit to a journal, but I am going to be busy soon so want the knowledge out there asap (thus preprint).

I also coded the Tories leader and party pages 2015/17, Labour leader and party page 2015 + Momentum in 2018 so more to come. END/
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More from @TristanHotham

Nov 11, 2019
You may have seen my research on A/B testing reported by the @observer online, in print or via the #Marr show. Here is a full @Medium report by me on what the news article and @AndrewMarr9 show touched upon. Big ol' thread 1/

⬇️⬇️⬇️Read here ⬇️⬇️⬇️
medium.com/@WhoTargetsMe/…
Political parties using #Facebook ads have a powerful capacity to hone their messages. Unlike the past where expensive and hard to organise focus groups were the only avenue available for parties to test their messages; today all the political parties engage in #ABtesting 2/
Political parties have never had it so good, as it’s ‘us’ (the users), who help make this happen. Today party campaigning is Janus-faced, a fantastic example of this phenomenon is via the many faces of @joswinson the #LiberalDemocrats were recently pushing. 3/
Read 25 tweets
Aug 14, 2019
A thread on @SocSciOne's @crowdtangle through which all analysis of public @facebook data will be operated after 4th Sept. Overtly restrictive, it warrants the death of masters/undergrad FB study, endangers non-political study, and promotes the illegal scraping of data. 1/
So if you are going to want to analyse even the most basic public @Facebook data, data basically identical to what #Netvizz #facepager accessed you will need to submit to these demands -docs.google.com/document/d/1aB… 2/
Here is what @crowdtangle gives you -docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… - basically the same data from the free-API era with a few more measures of reach - see my image of #netvizz data. 3/
Read 18 tweets
Aug 6, 2019
Thread on @facebook shutting down @RiederB's #Netvizz and the hollowing out of our democracy. 1/
On the 4th September @facebook is closing down the only access researchers have for examining public page data. All other tools that access Facebook's #API will be gone forever, work akin to my study of British political parties use of Facebook will never occur again. 2/
Facebook is hollowing out our abilities to hold the corporation and the powerful on the platform to account. Although Facebook has made forward, but deliberately small steps, in opening up access to targeted advertisements via its #AdLibrary. 3/
Read 16 tweets

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