Victor Ebuwa, Big Brother 5
Most political commentators are interested in how people vote in political elections. I'm interested in two other questions. How - and, more importantly, why - do people vote in non-political elections, such as Big Brother and Pop Idol? And how do people who vote in reality TV shows, but not in political elections, experience a British general election campaign?
The people who interest me are a not insignificant minority. In the 2001 general election 4 out of 10 eligible electors did not vote, with the number going up to 65% of under-30s. The conventional wisdom is that vast numbers of citizens, especially the young, have become apathetic. I doubt that wisdom and want to find out what the 'politically disengaged' are thinking about during this election campaign.
To find out, I've set up a panel of 250 people who are eligible to vote on 5 May, say that they're not really interested in the election, but did vote in last summer's Big Brother series. I call them the 'BBs'. I have been asking them questions several times a week during the general election campaign. Are voters for Victor and Nadya that different from voters for Tony, Mike and Charlie? Do they adopt different ways of deciding who to vote for? Are the Big Brother viewers as indifferent to political issues as Newsnight junkies are to who wins Pop Idol?
It's too early to give definitive answers to these questions (there's a mass of data to be analysed), but at this stage I can offer five preliminary conclusions:
- BBs are not apathetic, but bored, frustrated and sometimes
angry. Political rhetoric irritates them. They regard politics
as being at odds with ordinary language and everyday values.
Take a look at the excellent web forum, www.notapathetic.com,
and you'll see that non-voters have lots of clear reasons for
refusing to vote for what's currently on offer.
- BBs have their own priorities. They think that the personal is important, but they'd also like to see the campaign concentrating on big issues, like global warming. When I asked my panel how many cared about who won the election on 5 May fewer than half said they did, but when I asked who cared about global warming over 60% said they did.
- BBs are interested in certain key personal qualities. In 2004 I asked a panel of Big Brother voters which qualities housemates had to have to get their vote. In the 2005 general election BBs rate the party leaders on the basis of the same qualities, which have more to do with trust and respect than cleverness or prosperity.
- BBs do talk about the election, but they do so informally with one another. They're not glued to politics on TV, but that doesn't mean they're not communicating.
- BBs have strong and articulate ideas about what politics should
be like. The most exciting part of my research has not been
the yes-no survey questions, but the lengthier answers given
by BBs to questions about what would make them vote, how more
fun could be introduced into politics and how elections would
be different if the entire electorate were Big Brother viewers.
Once the election's over, I'll be analysing the data thoroughly
and publishing the results. So watch this space. But, in the meantime,
those of you who would like to add your thoughts on some of these
issues, still have time to fill in the specially-devised survey
that I've designed for visitors to this
site.
Professor Stephen Coleman,
Oxford Internet Institute,
University of Oxford
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