Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
MP twitter analysis
Slide 0.1
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Summary
Question:
Do MPs use twitter to engage with young voters
and encourage them to vote?
Answer:
• Some MPs (and panel activists) do
– Labour seem more active on this front.
• Most stick to key messages (not twitter specific)
• Many MPs gave up twitter account for campaign
Slide 0.2
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Analysis is based on…
• Tweets by MPs and panelists:
–
–
–
–
–
@MichaelSani
@Georgia_Gould
@WarwickGreens
@Ankcorn
Tina Freyburg Not on Twitter?
• Content analysed using LDA
– Estimate topics over large sample of tweets
• Sample: March 1 and April 21 (inclusive)
– Total of 130,285 tweets
Slide 0.3
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Many MPs cease twitter use for campaign!
• Lots of MPs ceased to use MP twitter accounts
once parliament was dissolved
• 456 MPs active in November 2014
• 112 MPs ceased use of old account
• Some started new accounts
• @SimonHughesMP @SimonHughes
• Can’t access old tweets and don’t access new tweets
Just for local information sharing?
Rather than engagement?
Slide 0.4
Michael McMahon
Warwick Policy Lab
Party Statistics of Tweets
party
Tweeters
TotalTweets
Average per MP
Labour
164
93313
569
Conservative
133
54522
410
Liberal Democrat
31
19944
643
Panel
4
646
162
SDLP
3
776
259
Sinn Fein
3
1863
621
Scottish National
2
1801
901
Alliance
1
1336
1336
Democratic Unionist
1
111
111
Green Party
1
1123
1123
Independent
1
717
717
Plaid Cymru
1
2161
2161
Respect
1
3186
3186
Slide 0.5
Michael McMahon
Warwick Policy Lab
Party Main Topics of Tweets
party
•
•
•
•
•
Main Topic1
Tweets
%
Main Topic2
Tweets
%
Labour
Topic 65
4438
5
Topic 31
4095
4
Conservative
Topic 65
2590
5
Topic 68
1651
3
Liberal Democrat
Topic 33
2761
14
Topic 51
1032
5
Panel
Topic 40
200
31
Topic 7
58
9
Both Conservatives and Labour have the same top topic
Labour otherwise focus on doorstep politics
Conservatives otherwise focus on economy
Lib Dems focus on issues of equality and NHS
Panel correctly chosen for focus on issues about youth engagement
(Party results obviously can be driven by most active tweeting MPs)
Slide 0.6
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
How to interpret word clouds
• A topic is a probability distribution over
words – i.e. which words are used in which
proportion in a given topic
• Size of word is related to how frequently it is
used in a topic
• Words have been “stemmed” so may not
represent precise English words
– Underlying word is usually obvious
Slide 0.7
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Conservative and Labour top topic!
Slide 0.8
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Conservative 2nd top topic
Slide 0.9
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Labour 2nd top topic
Slide 0.10
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Lid Dems top topic
Slide 0.11
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Lib Dems 2nd top topic
Slide 0.12
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Greens Top Topic: Green!
Slide 0.13
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Topic 40: Panel Favourite Topic
Slide 0.14
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Topic 7: Panel 2nd Favourite Topic
Slide 0.15
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Some example Youth tweets
T40
T40
T40
T7
T7
Mon Apr 20 2015 RT @crisis_uk: You have till MIDNIGHT to #RegisterToVote.
Whatever your housing situation, here's what to do: WebLink
15:18:25
Thu Feb 05 2015 RT @TenEightyUK: What did YouTubers think of @BiteTheBallot's
#LeadersLive? (Don't forget to #RegisterToVote!) WebLink
15:25:18
RT @voteforpolicies: Founder @mattchoc is speaking at
Fri Apr 17 2015
@SHPcharity #HaveYourSay campaign event today, encouraging
11:38:19
people to #RegisterToVote.
young people have something important and powerful to say and
Thu Mar 26 2015
we are wasting our opportunity to listen
18:19:30
Big thank you to all the amazing people HANDLEYouthMediaA for
Tue Apr 21 2015
making this lovely film about the launch of HASHTAGWasted
15:36:52
WebLink
Slide 0.16
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Scatter of Youth Topics (by party)
Slide 0.17
Michael McMahon
Warwick Policy Lab
Top Youth Topic Tweeters (by count)
mpscreenname
stellacreasy
michaelsani
IvanLewis_MP
JulieHillingMP
SadiqKhan
ChrisPincher
hammersmithandy
julianhuppert
BarrySheerman
georgia_gould
GrahamAllenMP
grahamemorris
GwynneMP
MegMunnMP
KarlTurnerMP
KeeleyMP
MikeGapes
SarahChampionMP
party
Labour
Panel
Labour
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Labour
Panel
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Total Youth Topic
Tweets
238
157
123
104
100
99
99
98
91
89
87
87
82
78
77
77
71
64
Youth Topics
% of all tweets
8.6
66.0
20.1
39.4
6.7
17.7
9.8
3.0
3.2
38.7
11.3
5.3
3.6
11.0
2.4
5.3
2.4
2.3
Total Tweets
2763
238
611
264
1495
559
1014
3222
2862
230
772
1654
2252
706
3239
1448
2903
2748
Slide 0.18
Warwick Policy Lab
Michael McMahon
Top Youth Topic Tweeters (by %)
mpscreenname
michaelsani
glendajacksonmp
JulieHillingMP
georgia_gould
YasminQureshiMP
IvanLewis_MP
MarkPawsey
ChrisPincher
SimonWrightMP
Mark4WyreForest
GrahamAllenMP
MegMunnMP
PriskMark
StephenTwigg
Linda_Riordan
hammersmithandy
MadeleineMoon
Mark_J_Harper
party
Panel
Labour
Labour
Panel
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal Democrat
Conservative
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Labour
Labour
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Total Youth Youth Topics %
Topic Tweets
of all tweets
157
66.0
5
50.0
104
39.4
89
38.7
32
20.4
123
20.1
26
17.9
99
17.7
23
16.5
28
13.7
87
11.3
78
11.0
24
10.9
37
10.7
1
10.0
99
9.8
10
9.7
2
9.1
Total Tweets
238
10
264
230
157
611
145
559
139
204
772
706
220
345
10
1014
103
22
Slide 0.19
Michael McMahon
Warwick Policy Lab
Selection of the big names
engagement via twitter?
mpscreenname
michaelsani
georgia_gould
siobhanbenita
SadiqKhan
Ed_Miliband
David_Cameron
vincecable
ankcorn
MarkReckless
RachelReevesMP
nick_clegg
CarolineLucas
George_Osborne
DouglasCarswell
edballsmp
YvetteCooperMP
WilliamJHague
party
Panel
Panel
Panel
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Liberal Democrat
Panel
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Green Party
Conservative
Conservative
Labour
Labour
Conservative
Topic 40
151
37
11
95
17
6
12
2
9
23
3
24
3
9
2
1
0
Topic 7
6
52
2
5
3
5
5
0
14
8
5
10
6
6
1
1
0
Youth
Topics% of
total
66.0
38.7
25.0
6.7
6.4
5.0
4.5
4.3
3.5
3.3
3.2
3.0
2.2
1.3
1.1
0.9
0.0
Total Tweets
238
230
52
1495
314
222
375
46
648
952
247
1123
408
1164
276
212
57
Slide 0.20