Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals
Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, as well as a Chief Investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC). He is the author of a monograph, Peripheral Actors in Journalism (Routledge, 2022), as well as the lead editor of Digitizing Democracy (Routledge, 2018) and the forthcoming Media Compass (Wiley, 2024).
Email: aljosha.schapals@qut.edu.au
UK Election 2024
Section 6: The digital campaign
62. Local news and information on candidates was insufficient (Dr Martin Moore, Dr Gordon Neil Ramsay)
63. The Al election that wasn’t – yet (Prof Helen Margetts)
64. Al-generated images: how citizens depicted politicians and society (Niamh Cashell)
65. The threat to democracy that wasn’t? Four types of Al-generated synthetic media in the General Election (Dr Liam McLoughlin)
66. Shitposting meets Generative Artificial Intelligence and ‘deep fakes’ at the 2024 General Election (Dr Rosalynd Southern)
67. Shitposting the General Election: why this campaign felt like one long meme (SE Harman, Dr Matthew Wall)
68. Winning voters’ hearts and minds… through reels and memes?! How #GE24 unfolded on TikTok (Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals)
69. Debating the election in “Non-political” Third Spaces: the case of Gransnet (Prof Scott Wright et al)
70. Which social networks did political parties use most in 2024? (Dr Richard Fletcher)
71. Facebook’s role in the General Election: still relevant in a more fragmented information environment (Prof Andrea Carson, Dr Felix M. Simon)
72. Farage on TikTok: the perfect populist platform (Prof Karin Wahl-Jorgensen)
“I’m looking for a new Prime Minister: Big plans. Good vibes. Change lives.” You’d be forgiven to think this TikTok reel, which borrows from the viral “I’m looking for a man in finance” song by influencer @girl_on_the_couch, is just parody crafted by another Gen Z personality on the popular social platform. Except that it’s not. This 8-second clip ranks among the most-watched videos the Labour Party has posted on its official TikTok channel, with over 3.6m likes at the time of writing. There are other examples, too: a video titled ‘POV: Rishi Sunak’s searches’ of the former Prime Minister googling flights to California has been viewed 2.7m times. The party’s most viewed TikTok video, ‘POV: Rishi Sunak turning up on your 18th birthday to send you to war’ uses Cilla Black’s song ‘Surprise, Surprise’ to mock the former PM’s national service plan and has been viewed a staggering 5.2m times. As much as mainstream media continued to dominate coverage of the campaign, this was also an election where political parties, peripheral media and ‘newsfluencers’ on TikTok and YouTube were vying for attention.
And like in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, there was no shortage of election blunders that gave the Labour party ammunition to attack their opponents, and alternative voices meme-worthy content by the hour: from Sunak’s surprise election announcement in the pouring rain (leading some to joke that that ‘Things can only get wetter’), to his visit of the Titanic site (which led to inevitable comparisons to him leading a sinking ship) and his national service announcement (branded a ‘Teenage Dad’s Army’ by Sir Keir Starmer), it was fair game for those ridiculing the Conservatives. Granted, political gaffes are part and parcel of often unpredictable election campaigns, and one can hardly fault parties for making fun of their rivals when so much is at stake. Just cast your mind back to Theresa May’s disastrous social care policy in the 2017 election, or Boris Johnson hiding in a fridge to escape a TV reporter in 2019. In both elections, political parties spent significant money on Facebook ads to lure voters. What’s different, this time, is that political parties persistently churned out content on TikTok, with both Labour and the Conservatives notably only joining two days after the surprise election announcement. This ties in with the rise of so-called ‘spinfluencers’ targeting a younger demographic that primarily gets their news from social media. But having observed the two major parties’ TikTok accounts over the past few weeks, it’s remarkable how thin they are on policy – and how relentless they are at bashing their rivals. So, how does this go down with those such content is aimed at – young voters?
“All it is is them having one over another. You don’t learn anything of what they’ve actually got to offer you, but rather what the other party doesn’t offer you,” first-time voter Rachel said in a Channel 4 News piece as part of a survey by the Social Mobility Foundation. Regardless, it’s easy to see why campaign strategists want to tap into the Gen Z target demographic: according to the same survey, 34% of 18-24-year-olds across 3,500 participants in the UK use TikTok as their main source of news. More broadly, 70% of 18-24-year-olds use social media as their main source of news. This year, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report finds short video formats as an increasingly important source, especially among younger groups. Tied to this, it highlights “an increasing focus on partisan commentators and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok”. In the UK, the TikTok account of Dylan Page (aka ‘News Daddy’) boasts 11.2m subscribers, and digital creator Jack Kelly hosts the popular Politics Joe and TLDR News. The latter publishes regular explainer videos on UK politics on YouTube, employs 11 staff in their twenties full-time, and is profitable on a £1m annual turnover. Among its most recent videos is ‘The UK Election Results Explained’, which garnered 1.1m YouTube views just two days after the election, and currently ranks among the Top 50 trending videos on the platform. I couldn’t help but think back to the Channel 4 News piece. In it, Evelyn, another first-time voter, said of the parties’ TikTok presence: “If you’re going to have a TikTok account, and you’re going to talk about politics, actually tell me what you’re going to do: why does this matter?” Sure, young people may well get a laugh out of a funny political meme or reel they can share with friends and family on WhatsApp, but there also seems to be an appetite to understand politics and have it explained to them in short, accessible ways – especially when it comes from online personalities perceived as authentic and relatable.
I have studied digital-native alternative and peripheral media since 2016 when I moved from the UK to Australia and have found their rise and occasional success nothing short of fascinating. The emergence of social media platforms, which has lowered publication thresholds and has made it easier for alternative voices to be heard above the crowd, has only further increased their prominence. Traditional media, like Channel 4 News, tap into that with its ‘Shorts’ section on YouTube featuring vertical videos for mobile consumption, which includes explainer content by younger presenters. But with the two major parties having only recently joined TikTok to engage younger voters, it seems that both traditional media and campaign strategists have something to learn from how newsfluencers and alternative voices successfully engage younger voters.
