Each London Mayoral candidate has cultivated a different strategy to make the most of the surge in social networking and video sharing.  Ken Livingstone has hired the US company behind Barack Obama’s election campaign, Blue State Digital, to help him remain in office for a third term, hoping that similar success will accompany the choice.  It looks as if he has been making the most of the generally less than courteous code of behaviour that prevails online allowing for more aggressive tactics (he recently used a YouTube video to hit back at Johnson’s first part election broadcast).  The promises of information direct from the campaign team to Labour bloggers, interviews with Ken and online ads have created a strong individualist voice. 

Johnson has not only used the web to get people to sign up to ‘Team Boris’, but also hired a search optimization firm to bring his site up high in Google rankings under the term “London mayor” whereas the other two candidates have both bought ads on Google.  This handy web tactic certainly shows a savvy awareness of online politics.

Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick’s online presence was established before the election as he is a dedicated blogger himself. He is keen to discuss issues online and has also sourced the US, employing liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong to help put together Democrat Howard Dean’s original 2004 campaign. 

The way the London race for mayor is being played out online reflects the wider significance of UK political online status.  A recent article by NMA [“Site Inspection”, NMA, 17.04.08] dedicated to analysing each mayoral candidate’s website underlines their prominence as central points of access for British people to the candidates themselves and their manifestos.  These websites count for a great deal in influencing party perception.

This awareness does not seem to extend to the larger political parties’ online presence. Unfortunately, the official websites of the principal parties – Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat – receive less traffic than the most popular political blogs and far less than the extreme right British National Party.  There remains a serious lack of involvement beyond signing up for email distribution lists.  At present, more fervour may be found in the blogosphere.  Authentic “civilian journalism” has certainly been slower to emerge in Britain than America.  Its main political blogs are written mostly by former party members and reputable journalists and there is, moreover, a tone of meekness to many of them compared to the US, where the blogosphere’s criticism is closely felt by movers and shakers.  British political parties are far behind in their online presence and are missing out on the internet’s power to inform and persuade. Given the increasing importance of the web in our everyday lives, surely it’s time they catch up.

More optimistically, one field where the UK is in fact succeeding is in the utilization of the internet by the Government, as opposed to the parties, to involve citizens and enhance policy-making.  Their website has provided a petition-making and signing service since 2006. Foreign Secretary David Miliband states that he looks forward to the internet allowing people power over public services and not merely access to them, and there is vague talk of “Public Services 2.0”.  Web leaders maintain that UK politics could be using the internet to greater lengths.

The UK must further realise the full capabilities of the web in ways demonstrated by the most forward-thinking areas of Europe and, indeed, America. Take, for instance, the US Presidential Election’s incredible online support.  Time Magazine call it “the biggest technological shift in national politics since the rise of television” [Time Magazine, 17.04.08].  For millions of US citizens, the Internet has transformed presidential politics into a fully interactive event, donating money instantly and volunteering from afar.  The problems of geography have been quickly overcome by the immediacy and centralisation that accompanies online presence.  The Democrats have used these with very impressive results.  Hillary Clinton drew 200,000 new donors in February mostly through online means, which saved her campaign from bankruptcy.  Not only has Barack Obama assembled a troop of 750,000 supporters who have signed to his website and taken part in 30,000 offline events, but his online fund-raising soared above $100m from January to March.  His YouTube videos have been watched over 37 million times.  Unfortunately, having initially planned an internet campaign that never got off the ground, McCain’s online presence is somewhat flagging - a particularly tough blow to take seeing as Republicans were once well in the lead in advanced TV technology.

Quite clearly, the key for political success in an online arena is interactivity.  While politics is by nature an active entity, it can only be a waste of the communicative prospects of the technology at hand for a political party merely to provide information.  With many of the London mayoral candidates following in the footsteps of US online success and moving into MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, they are solidifying their presence and allowing people to view them beyond their status as figures of political ideology and more as individuals responding to their nation.  Only time will tell whose hard work will pay off next Thursday.

Justin Drummond,

Chief Executive - Media Corporation plc