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Best of the Spectator

Coffee House Shots: is the real election battle happening online?

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With James Ball, journalist and the author of Post-Truth, and Katy Balls.

Presented by Cindy Yu.

Coffee House Shots is a series of podcasts on British politics from the Spectator's political team and special guests. Brought to you daily, click here to find more episodes that are not released on Spectator Radio.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before you start listening to this podcast, a reminder that we have a special subscription offer.

0:04.8

You can get 12 issues of The Spectator for £12 as well as a £20,000 Amazon voucher.

0:10.3

Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher if you'd like to get this offer.

0:17.3

Hello and welcome to this Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots.

0:22.2

In this winter election,

0:26.7

campaigners have had a tough job of going out in the dark and the cold to get their messages across. But the campaign is as much fought on the internet as it is on the ground. Viral videos are

0:32.6

capable of reaching tens of millions of internet users, whereas much fewer tune in to traditional broadcasts.

0:38.9

So how important is the digital battleground and what makes for an online victory?

0:43.9

I'm Cindy Yu and I'm joined by Katie Balls, who writes about the issue in this week's

0:47.6

Spectator and James Ball, journalist and author of Post Truth. Katie, can you tell us about this digital battleground?

0:56.6

Ultimately, in this election, there are different conversations going on in different places.

1:01.7

Now, there's the one that you see on the news, if you're watching the news bulletins, the six and the ten,

1:07.0

which tends to be, I suppose, the policy announcements that each party is putting out there,

1:12.2

then balanced with a response from another party saying why they think it's rubbish.

1:16.2

There's also on the doorstep MPs going out and campaigning on the doors,

1:19.9

but what I say in the magazine is one growing battleground, which has been increasing importance

1:24.7

for every election, is digital.

1:26.7

And on digital, there are different rules when it comes to elections.

1:30.1

It's harder to regulate.

1:31.2

It's harder to keep a track of even what is going on.

1:34.9

And increasingly, it's where a lot of, I suppose, younger voters especially,

1:39.2

are getting their information from.

...

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