A study by academics at Robert Gordon University (RGU) has shed new light on the impact of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum on levels of political engagement and participation among first-time voters.
The Aberdeen Business School researchers, who were awarded £30,000 by the Communities and Culture Network+ to carry out the study, conducted a national survey of first-time voters in the referendum, as well as a range of interviews with first-time voters and representatives of some of Scotland’s main political parties and campaign groups.
They also worked with colleagues in RGU’s School of Computing Science and Digital Media to undertake a mapping of post-referendum Twitter activity among first-time voters.
The study revealed a range of interesting findings, including the following:
- The referendum did mobilise young people politically. There was clear evidence from within the survey and interviews that young people who were not previously interested in politics had developed a keen interest in politics and political issues as a result of the debate.
- The study showed that the ‘engagement effect’ of the referendum is strongly uneven. On Twitter, political activity posting is strongly skewed towards certain users and tends to be reactive to political events rather than consistent. Despite large increases in party membership among young people, some 16 and 17 year olds who were interviewed said their interest in politics had declined because they were not able to vote in the UK general election.
- Young people’s activism changed dramatically in the aftermath of the referendum. Our survey and interview data suggests that campaign groups served as the predominant vehicle for engagement during the campaign, but these were largely replaced by political parties afterwards.
- There were only limited efforts by political elites to appeal specifically to first-time voters during the referendum campaign. Rather, schools, family, friends and youth agencies/organisations were seen as being important sources of influence on political engagement.
- Twitter use is largely ‘monological’ rather than dialogical. Many claims have been made about Twitter’s potential as a democratic enabler, particularly for young people. However, whilst we found clear evidence that first-time voters are engaging with Twitter for political purposes, this is rarely done in the context of a dialogue: instead, Twitter is disproportionately used for one-off statements, with a disproportionate tendency towards retweets (rather than original contributions) when dealing with political content.
Principal investigator and Reader in Public Policy at RGU, Dr Peter McLaverty, said: “This study has allowed us to investigate more fully the claims that the referendum led to a generation of first-time voters becoming engaged with politics, and that social media plays a key role in young people’s political engagement.
“We found clear evidence that the referendum led to widespread engagement among young people who previously had no interest in politics, and that this translated into increased political activity – including party membership – after the referendum. In some cases, this translated directly into sustained engagement or activism around the 2015 General Election.
“However, the effects were unevenly distributed, with many 16 and 17 year olds reporting a drop-off in interest due to being unable to vote. We also found that although Twitter offers people the opportunity to engage with politics and politicians in a very direct way, there is a very strong tendency to simply retweet other people’s views rather than engage in a genuine dialogue.
“As such, it will be very interesting to see what levels of political engagement and activity are like in the lead-up to the 2016 Scottish Parliament election when 16 and 17 year olds will be eligible to vote, as well as if and how politicians and campaign groups seek to engage with these first-time voters.”
The study drew upon software developed by Professor AyÅŸe Göker and RGU’s School of Computing Science and Digital Media in order to explore the use of Twitter as a means of political engagement of first-time voters.
The report can be found at: http://www.communitiesandculture.org/projects/new-radicals/