Presentation to business leader audience on the core lessons on media trust and influence from the UK general election 2015. Has social media improved democracy? What are the strategic lessons to be learnt by any organisation interested in dealing with the public in the digital age?

1. Media, trust and influence:
lessons from UK GE 2015
Prof Charlie Beckett
LSE
@CharlieBeckett
Windsor Debates Sept 2015

2. How did this….

3. …lead to this?

4. It was mainly this

5. Plus a lot of this

6. Though it wouldn’t work without this

7. Unique or a precedent?
• Rochester by-election – damage limitation
• Over-reaction by over-sensitive leader
• Toxic combination of anti-Labour blogger (who
works for) and anti-Labour newspaper
BUT
• Genuine problem with core vote perception
• Inevitable consequence of febrile networked
political media

8. What digital can for democracy
• More information
• Citizen voice and
participation
• Media held to account
• Access to politicians
• Direct communication
(disintermediation)
• Information overload
• Faster
• More personal (filter
bubbles)
• More emotional
(personalities, anger)
• Manipulation,
misinformation

10. Spin eats itself

13. Authenticity is constructed

16. The theatre of politics

21. Marketing morals in a
post-ideological world

22. But politics can still be popular

23. How do you respond? Do the data

24. • Invest in intelligent communications &
reflexive analytics as well as public-
centred design
• Identify, segment, specify – listen and
learn and respond
• Align your organisation and your
message before making the call to
action

25. Connect to me:
c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk
@CharlieBeckett
Charles Beckett on Facebook
Polis director’s blog:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/