As a blogger that works at the intersection of presidential campaigning and the web, it is easy for me to take the Internet for granted. But taking a step back with this post, I have realized three things:
1. Not everybody has access to the Internet and uses social media.
For all the talk about tweeting, posting and instagraming, the fact is that there are still areas of France that lack high-speed Internet access and aren’t as connected as the rest of the population is. You can find out much more about the fracture numérique (digital fracture, or digital divide) here. One striking figure is that only 34% of lower income households have a personal computer whereas higher income households are almost fully equipped at 87.1%. Any digital campaigning is therefore completely lost on the former, even though there have been efforts to get isolated or poorer populations on the grid.
2. Digital themes are relatively absent from the campaign.
The 2012 campaign is economy focused, with obscure side-shows like the halal meat debate. But nothing remotely close to a digital debate has emerged between the candidates, and their ideas on the topic remain very vague. The only issue that every candidate has had to position him or herself on was Hadopi, but even then the platforms were limited to keeping it or ditching it. The only reason anybody is talking about the Conseil National du Numérique (National Digital Council) this week is because of a mini-scandal caused by its director that hardly has anything to do with le numérique. François Hollande revealed his digital platform this week: it has interesting concepts such as a digital habeas corpus or open government data on the one hand, but the absence of concrete economic measures to support the digital economy on the other hand. In any case, his announcement barely got any traction with the media or the other candidates.
3. Despite all the talk about web campaigning, the Internet still isn’t the defining election media.
Even the seemingly omnipresent web campaign is misleading. Every candidate now has a strategy for mobilizing online, but traditional media, especially television, are still the main target. I’ve written extensively about this topic on the blog, and so far we have seen that social media help mobilize activists, not ordinary voters; that an exclusive web debate never saw the light; or that the web-initiatives undertaken by candidates to circumvent CSA regulations had little effect. All in all, the web is a tool that candidates are increasingly aware of, but 2012 is no more 2.0 than 2007 was, and others have reached similar conclusions. The use of web-based tools is often minimal. The full potential of social media is never exploited; instead of taking advantage of the networks to foster bottom-up contributions, initiatives are still very much top-down. All Nicolas Sarkozy’s Twitter feed does, most of the time, is reproduce quotes from his speeches, which is probably the most underwhelming use of Twitter you could imagine.
Everything isn’t so bleak. The web has given citizens the chance to parody, mock and debate about their politicians, as with Nicolas Sarkozy’s “real” Facebook Timeline. Some web media like Mediapart have been able to use the web for long, interesting and hard-hitting debates with the candidates without the constraining CSA regulations on television.
But the fact remains: everybody doesn’t have or use the Internet for political information, candidates have barely talked about digital themes and their web campaigning doesn’t use the full potential of Internet-based tools and networks. The turning point might be when the generation that actually grew up with the web comes to power.
(For more, listen to this interesting France Culture show on the digital campaign, in French)
Geeking the Elysée 