CorpComms Magazine

The election campaigns saw a significant decline in scepticism towards politics and politicians across the UK, according to a new poll by PR consultancy Weber Shandwick.

There was a concomitant decline in voter apathy. The percentage of people arguing a change of government wouldn't really change anything dropped eight percentage points from over half to 44 per cent. The number who felt politicians care more about themselves than about voters fell from three quarters to 64 per cent.

Fewer voters believed that the party communications they were receiving were irrelevant, a drop from six out of ten to 54 per cent. Despite the theatrics surrounding the live debates, fewer voters felt that their cross on the ballot was influenced by the personality of the party leader, falling from 46 per cent to a third of the electorate.

Some have suggested that the closeness of the election and the political engagement elicited by the televised debates has gone some way to restoring the confidence lost during last year's MPs' expenses scandal. But the compilers of the study have highlighted that these results do not factor in the public response to the formation of the new coalition government.

Colin Byrne, chief executive for Europe at Weber Shandwick, said: 'It's part of the new politics that the public is becoming more engaged and less cynical about politicians - a real case of man bites dog.'

Television had the greatest sway over respondents' voting decisions, with 37 per cent acknowledging its impact. A little over a third of people were influenced by the televised debates and party political broadcasts carried weight for over a quarter. Local media guided the decisions of 21 per cent of voters, just one percentage point less than were influenced by the national press. One in five voters deferred to news websites, 18 per cent trusted family and friends and less than one in seven reported any effect from traditional canvassing or official party activity online.

But the much anticipated digital election barely materialised, with just six per cent acknowledging the influence of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter over their voting intent.

Lib Dem voters were the most open minded party supporters, with 67 per cent making up their minds during the campaign, compared to just over half for Labour and 45 per cent for the Tories.

Byrne noted: 'The Weber Shandwick poll also reveals the enduring power of television. Even if it did not translate into seats for Nick Clegg, it has lent credibility to his assumption of the role of Deputy Prime Minister. It is fair to say that we did not see a digital election - but we should expect the role of social media to grow steadily in elections to come. We should expect much higher figures for the impact of online campaigning when we reach the 2015 General Election.'

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