Vuelio – The Politics of Social Media

Research commissioned by Vuelio, the political and media software provider, has found that MPs believe social media has a negative impact on politics, with four in five (81%) of the 137 MPs surveyed believing public attitudes towards politicians have been changed for the worse as a result of social media.

• According to MPs, there are specific ways in which social media has damaged public engagement. Over three quarters (79%) believe social media has made it difficult for the public to source information from trustworthy sources and 78% believe it leads to people being overloaded with information.
• This impacts policy making, with two in five (42%) MPs believing social media has changed the policy making process for the worse, and a third (36%) believe it has changed public understanding of policy for the worse.
• While MPs believe, on balance, that social media has had negative impact on politics, they do recognise some positives.
• Almost half (47%) of MPs say it has improved the transparency of politics and around two in five (44%) say it has improved engagement between politicians and the public.

Date Published: 11/09/2019

Categories: Policy Makers | Social | Technology & Telecoms

Client: Vuelio

Methodology

ComRes interviewed 137 MPs online or by self-completion paper survey between 11th June and 12th August 2019.  Data were weighted to be representative of the House of Commons by party, region and length of service. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

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