This thesis examines how constituency candidates are furthering independence from the national party through new media campaigning, by comparing data from general elections in two countries with different styles of campaigning – party-centred campaigning in the United Kingdom (2015) and candidate-centred campaigning Japan (2014). Data collection and analysis has been conducted in a two-stage process. Firstly, candidates' website and social media use (Twitter and Facebook) during election campaigns was examined, establishing the degree to which candidates are using new media to pursue the personal vote, and what form this takes. Findings from candidate new media use were also used to formulate the second stage of research – interviews with candidates and members of parliament in both the UK and Japan. A secondary research question has also examines whether personal vote seeking behaviour has a positive impact on candidates' electoral performance, or whether party performance factors are a key factor of performance at the constituency level. This study confirms that that Japanese candidates use new media to run more candidate centred campaigns, replicating traditional campaign styles, but also finds that other factors, namely candidates' levels of experience and the strength of the national party, play a role in how candidates utilise new media. This is broadly confirmed through findings from candidate interviews which also provide a greater understanding of different campaign behaviour not just between Japanese and UK candidates, but also those representing political parties of varying strength.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:751858 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Vincent, Sean Paul |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/76624/ |
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