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Using Citizen Science to Promote Transparency in British Election Campaigns

利用公民科学提高英国竞选活动的透明度

基本信息

批准号：
BB/T019026/1
负责人：
Siim Trumm
金额：
$ 2.57万
依托单位：
University of Nottingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FT019026%2F1
关键词：
Using Citizen Science Promote Transparency

项目摘要

Politicians are increasingly perceived as being 'out of touch' with voters. According to the most recent large-scale survey of the British electorate, three out of four citizens do not believe that MPs can be trusted or that politicians care what citizens think (British Election Study, 2019). This growing sense of disillusionment with politicians, and politics more broadly, is seen to contribute to the rise of populism and anti-democratic attitudes. The proposed project will address this situation by increasing the transparency surrounding British election campaigns. It will develop an easy-to-use tool for voters to analyse the diversity of campaign messages disseminated by political elites. In doing so, the tool enhances voters' knowledge of what parties talk about in their election campaigns and voters' ability to make choices that best represent their interests. In addition, the new tool will enable other stakeholders like journalists and academics to better understand how campaign messages vary across Britain.Election leaflets are still the backbone of British electoral campaigns. Almost all voters who were contacted by a party in the run up to the 2017 general elections reported that they received at least one election leaflet. In fact, British parties and candidates spend more money on leaflets than any other campaign activity. More than £13m was spent by parties on the design and postage of leaflets in 2017, making up nearly half of all the money spent by parties on their election campaigns. However, while candidates and parties are legally required to report how much they spend on election leaflets, they are not required to provide information about the content of their communications. Furthermore, campaign communication from political parties is increasingly targeted to specific constituencies (i.e. marginal seats) and to specific voters within those constituencies (i.e. 'swing' voters). The result of this is that it is increasingly difficult for voters to obtain complete information about what all parties and candidates are saying and promising to voters locally during election campaigns. In a similar vein, it is difficult for political scientists and voters to analyse the content of these communications and how it varies across the country. Our proposed project will pilot a citizen science approach to increasing the transparency of elections in Britain.Our aim is to utilise crowd-sourcing and citizen science in collaboration with the key partner Democracy Club to develop a website which focuses on improving voters' awareness of the campaign materials that parties and candidates distribute - AnalysingLeaflets.co.uk. The new website will add new functionality and citizen science-driven analysis to election leaflets. It will allow users to a) code leaflets according to a variety of themes, and b) visualise the patterns that occur in election leaflets across Britain. For example, users will be able to analyse leaflets according to i) the particular party and/or candidate who delivered the leaflet, ii) the constituency (or constituencies) in which leaflets were delivered, and iii) the particular issue area (or areas) that they are interested in. This tool enhances citizens' ability to make informed electoral choices. It pilots a new citizen science approach to coding election communications, and increases the overall transparency of election campaigns in Britain.

政客们越来越被认为与选民“脱节”。根据最近对英国选民的大规模调查，四分之三的公民不相信议员可以信任，也不相信政客关心公民的想法（英国选举研究，2019）。这种对政客和更广泛的政治的幻灭感日益增强，被认为导致了民粹主义和反民主态度的兴起。拟议的项目将通过提高英国竞选活动的透明度来解决这一问题。它将开发一种易于使用的工具，供选民分析政治精英传播的竞选信息的多样性。通过这样做，该工具增强了选民对政党在竞选活动中谈论的内容的了解，以及选民做出最能代表其利益的选择的能力。此外，新工具将使记者和学者等其他利益相关者能够更好地了解英国各地竞选信息的差异。选举传单仍然是英国竞选活动的支柱。几乎所有在 2017 年大选前夕与某个政党联系过的选民都表示，他们至少收到了一份选举传单。事实上，英国政党和候选人在传单上花费的钱比任何其他竞选活动都多。 2017年，各政党在传单的设计和邮寄上花费了超过1300万英镑，几乎占各政党竞选活动支出的一半。然而，虽然法律要求候选人和政党报告他们在选举传单上花费了多少钱，但他们不需要提供有关其通信内容的信息。此外，政党的竞选沟通越来越针对特定选区（即边缘席位）和这些选区内的特定选民（即“摇摆”选民）。其结果是，选民越来越难以获得有关各政党和候选人在竞选期间向当地选民所说和承诺的完整信息。同样，政治学家和选民也很难分析这些通讯的内容及其在全国范围内的差异。我们提议的项目将试行公民科学方法，以提高英国选举的透明度。我们的目标是与主要合作伙伴民主俱乐部合作，利用众包和公民科学开发一个网站，重点提高选民对政党和候选人分发的竞选材料的认识 - AnalysingLeaflets.co.uk。新网站将为选举传单添加新功能和公民科学驱动的分析。它将允许用户a）根据各种主题对传单进行编码，b）将英国各地选举传单中出现的模式可视化。例如，用户将能够根据 i) 分发传单的特定政党和/或候选人，ii) 分发传单的选区（或多个选区），以及 iii) 他们感兴趣的特定问题领域（或多个领域）来分析传单。该工具增强了公民做出知情选举选择的能力。它试点了一种新的公民科学方法来编码选举通信，并提高了英国竞选活动的整体透明度。