The last televised leaders' debate ahead of the UK General Election was aired as part of BBC Question Time last night. The complaints from parties, and ever-changing proposals by broadcasters in the lead-up to the first debate in March may have helped give the events publicity and elevated their importance, but 2015 will more importantly be remembered as the year in which party ideals and public feeling were broadcast and shared via non-traditional methods. Short video clips, Twitter conversation, online polls, Instagram accounts - during this election more than any other the internet has provided a platform for sharing, criticising, liking', and shaming, and for attracting and dissuading voters as well as gauging public feeling.
Advertising by political parties on the TV and radio is banned in the UK, and Ofcom sets guidelines on the minimum requirements for short party election broadcasts, and sets rules to ensure due weight and impartiality is given in broadcaster coverage of the elections. However, with more people using a tablet, phone, or computer as a primary means of content consumption, and choosing the internet over linear broadcasting, the importance of televised party broadcasts is waning. In February, for example, the BBC reported that the Conservative Party was spending over £100,000 a month on Facebook. A quick look on the site at the pages of Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP reveal well-stocked video libraries, and the three main parties also have YouTube channels: Labour leads the pack here, with 731 featured videos, compared to the Conservatives' 173 and the Lib Dems' 565.
Twitter has also been used as a major outlet for drumming up support by the main parties, and a channel for broadcasting content. Again, Labour supporters seem to be the most engaged with social media, with the party's page boasting 208,000 followers, compared with the Conservatives' 154,000, UKIP's 101,000, and the Lib Dems' 93,800. During the Question Time debate last night, the Twitter hashtag #bbcqt was used more than 275,000 times.
Politicians are not only using their own social media outlets to garner support - Labour's Ed Miliband took part in an interview with Russell Brand, which was broadcast on Brand's YouTube channel. The Brand/Miliband short has been viewed 885,320 times, and received 16,049 likes' on the site. Perhaps more importantly it has also generated 7,226 comments so far, a sign that just as the issues raised in a traditional TV broadcast may have been discussed afterwards at the pub, newer forms of content sharing still generate, and provide a space for, discussion.
With less than a week to go before polling stations open, and no more TV airtime for debates, all the parties will no doubt be turning to social media sites to persuade those final undecided voters, and try and maintain faith in party followers. The election night itself will be a Twitter storm, with solutions employed by the broadcasters to read and analyse social media interactions to provide a country-wide commentary of proceedings like never before.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
The last televised leaders' debate ahead of the UK General Election was aired as part of BBC Question Time last night. The complaints from parties, and ever-changing proposals by broadcasters in the lead-up to the first debate in March may have helped give the events publicity and elevated their importance, but 2015 will more importantly be remembered as the year in which party ideals and public feeling were broadcast and shared via non-traditional methods. Short video clips, Twitter conversation, online polls, Instagram accounts - during this election more than any other the internet has provided a platform for sharing, criticising, liking', and shaming, and for attracting and dissuading voters as well as gauging public feeling.
