Banducci, Susan

Horvath, Laszlo

Krouwel, André

Stephens, Dan

English

VU Research Portal

VU Research PortalThe “coarsening” of campaignsStephens, Dan; Banducci, Susan ; Horvath, Laszlo; Krouwel, Andrépublished inUK Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign2019document versionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recorddocument licenseArticle 25fa Dutch Copyright ActLink to publication in VU Research Portalcitation for published version (APA)Stephens, D., Banducci, S., Horvath, L., & Krouwel, A. (2019). The “coarsening” of campaigns. In D. Jackson, E.Thorsen, D. Lilleker, & N. Weidhase (Eds.), UK Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign: Earlyreflections from leading academics (pp. 15-15). The Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research.http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/the-coarsening-of-campaigns/General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.            • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.            • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain            • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.E-mail address:vuresearchportal.ub@vu.nlDownload date: 27. May. 2021The “coarsening” of campaignsProf Dan Stevens Cornwall Professor of mass political behaviour, University of Exeter. Email: D.P.Stevens@exeter.ac.uk (mailto:D.P.Stevens@exeter.ac.uk)Prof Susan Banducci Professor and Director of the Exeter Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter. Email: s.a.banducci@exeter.ac.uk (mailto:s.a.banducci@exeter.ac.uk) Twitter: @femalebrainDr Laszlo Horvath Laszlo Horvath is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter, working in theareas of political communication, media, and gender, using quantitative and computationalmethods Twitter: @_lhorvathAndré Krouwel Associate professor in political science and communication at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdamand is founder and co-owner of Kieskompas (Election Compass), a leading developer of VoteAdvice Applications across the globe.Section 1: Truth, Lies and Civic CultureDelusions of democracy (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/delusions-of-democracy/)What’s the election communication system like now? (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/whats-the-election-communication-system-like-now/)Sorry, not sorry: hubris, hate and the politics of shame (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/sorry-not-sorry-hubris-hate-and-the-politics-of-shame/)Online hate and the “nasty” election (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/online-hate-and-the-nasty-election/)GE2019 was not a Brexit election: trust and credibility, anti-politics and populism (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/ge2019-was-not-a-brexit-election-trust-and-credibility-anti-politics-and-populism/)The number of MPs who stood down prior to the GE2019 campaign may not have been aboveaverage, but the reasons given by MPs were noteworthy. According to one reportby Euronews/Institute for Government (https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/03/uk-election-2019-is-the-toxic-atmosphere-over-brexit-pushing-more-mps-to-quit), 14 of the 74 whoannounced they were not standing in the election cited abuse as the cause of resignation orabuse was referenced in resignation statements. In a 29 October 2019 letter to her constituents,MP Heidi Allen cited “threats, aggressive emails, being shouted at in the street, sworn at on socialmedia” as the reason for her departure. Longer serving MPs, such as Alan Duncan, claimed thejob of an MP was “coarser and ruder” than when he had entered politics in 1992. According to theEuronews story, abuse was more commonly cited by women than men as a reason for standingdown: 25% of female MPs standing down, compared to 17% of their male counterparts, referredto the hostile environment. Men made reference to today’s politics being a “coarser” (NicholasSoames and Alan Duncan) or a “disturbing” place (Norman Lamb) with women MPs, havingentered Parliament more recently, more likely to directly reference threatening behavior (bothonline and o ine).These stories of abuse-related resignations were preceded by a 2017 report by the Committee onStandards in Public Life detailing issues relating to abuse and harassment in campaigns. The workon this report was spurred by the murder of MP Jo Cox, who served as a Labour Party MP fromMay 2015 until her death in June 2016. The written submission(https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ le/666927/6.3637_CO_v6_061217_Web3.1__2_.pdf) to the committee provided by the team who conducted theRepresentative Audit of Britain suggested that one third of candidates surveyed had experiencedinappropriate behavior during the 2017 campaign.Between the release of the report on “Intimidation in Public Life” and the 2019 election, therewere a number of public reports on the hostile environment in the House of Commons. A Houseof Commons report released in July of 2019, led by senior lawyer Gemma White, spoke of bullyingand harassment of MPs’ sta . Coming at the same time was a report based on an inquiryconducted by Naomi Ellenbogen QC, that sta  in the House of Lords were also bullied andThe online public shaming of political candidates in the 2019 general election (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/the-online-public-shaming-of-political-candidates-in-the-2019-general-election/)Strategic lying: the new game in town (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/strategic-lying-the-new-game-in-town/)Fact-checkers’ attempts to check rhetorical slogans and misinformation (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/fact-checkers-attempts-to-check-rhetorical-slogans-and-misinformation/)The election where British fourth estate journalism moved closer to extinction (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/the-election-where-british-fourth-estate-journalism-moved-closer-to-extinction/)Rethinking impartiality in an age of political disinformation (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/rethinking-impartiality-in-an-age-of-political-disinformation/)Fake news, emotions, and social media (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/fake-news-emotions-and-social-media/)Unleashing optimism in an age of anxiety (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/unleashing-optimism-in-an-age-of-anxiety/)The rules of the campaign found wanting (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-1-truth-lies-and-civic-culture/the-rules-of-the-campaign-found-wanting/)harassed. Both of these followed a 2018 independent report by Dame Laura Cox which claimedthat abuse was tolerated and the system for dealing with abuse complaints was insu cient.The evidence of an environment of harassment and bullying would lead one to conclude thatpolitics has become toxic. Expressions of concern about incivility in politics are one dimension ofa popular recognition that democracies across the globe are “going through di cult times”. Onthe one hand, politicians su er abuse from constituents and the public; on the other hand,politicians also use fearmongering, often times inciting incivility among political elites. Thesetransformations in the landscape have lead scholars to claim that politics has become“coarsened”, polarized, detached from the truth and, above all, “uncivil”. By these measures ofincivility, the relationship between and among elites and the public has been compromised.There are at least two questions we can address about incivility in political life that are relevantwhen analysing GE2019. First, to what extent has the digital transformation in campaigncommunication impacted on the tone of political debate? Second, what are the implications ofthe coarsened debate on citizen engagement?As noted, in the 2017 Public Life report, social media has changed the conduct of elections andhow the public engages with candidates. Candidates must be on social media to win votes – socialmedia campaigning can in uence candidates’ and parties’ electoral fortunes. Yet, accordingto Delmar and Hudson (https://constitution-unit.com/2017/12/15/harassment-and-abuse-of-parliamentary-candidates-at-the-2017-general-election- ndings-from-the-representative-audit-of-britain/), attacks on social media were the most common form of harassment reported bycandidates. A report on Twitter abuse in the 2019 campaign by PoliMonitor(https://www.polimonitor.com/polimonitor-research-uncovers-increase-in-twitter-abuse-received-by-candidates-in-2019-general-election/), suggests an increase in problematic tweets, withwomen candidates receiving only slightly more abusive tweets than male candidates.In addition to concerns about the safety of political candidates, online attacks can also havecorrosive e ects on citizen engagement. We asked 1,277 respondents who participated in avoting advice application whether they agree that “Seeing politicians get attacked on social mediamakes me less likely to participate in politics”. Overall, approximately 28% agreed with thestatement with women more likely than men (33% to 28%) and Remainers more likely thanLeavers (36% to 18%) to agree. This implies the coarsening of politics is limiting politicalengagement for a substantial portion of the public, potentially skewing participation in politicalcampaigns, and even voting, to those who enjoy or are mobilized by this style of politics. Giventhat much of this appears to be driven by social media, getting Brexit done appears unlikely toimprove the situation.(http://www.psa.ac.uk) (https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/centre-comparative-politics-media-research)Election Analysis (http://www.electionanalysis.uk/) All rights reserved. Theme by Colorlib (http://colorlib.com/) Powered byWordPress (http://wordpress.org/)

The “coarsening” of campaigns

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The “coarsening” of campaigns

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