Corbyn’s social media tsunami

By Alex Spence

Come Monday, the Labour frontrunner will need more friends in the mainstream media.

LONDON — As voting on the Labour leadership entered its final hours this week, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s team posted a note on his campaign’s Facebook page thanking supporters and reflecting on the unlikely “democratic storm” that has turned British politics on its head.
Central to the campaign’s extraordinary success: “The biggest single social media operation for any politician this country has ever seen.” 

In the last three months, while Corbyn faced an almost daily barrage of negative coverage in the British press — he’s been derided as an “economic dinosaur,” a “hard-left socialist throwback,” even a threat to national security — on social media there was a groundswell of support for his anti-austerity message.
The left-wing MP may have few supporters in the established U.K. media, but that hasn’t stopped him from crushing the other Labour leadership contenders on Facebook and Twitter. Voting among Labour members closed Thursday and the result will be announced Saturday. Some pundits urged caution, suggesting the result would be less clear than recent polls suggested, but most observers expected Corbyn to win.
Corbyn generated nearly 10 times as much buzz on Twitter as the next most-discussed candidate, Andy Burnham, since the campaign began, according to Kantar, a research company. There have been 2.4 million tweets about Corbyn since nominations closed in June, compared to 275,000 about his closest rival, their data showed.
A 66-year-old with a scruffy white beard, a wardrobe of beige shirts and a quiet manner, Corbyn is an unlikely new media star. But his quixotic, anti-establishment campaign tapped into a wellspring of political disaffection among young, digitally-savvy left-wing voters and spawned a social media sensation. For months, Twitter has buzzed with Corbyn memes (Corbyn as David Beckham, Corbyn in Game of Thrones), parody accounts, and hashtags (#JezWeCan was tweeted more than 80,000 times).
Corbyn’s team, with limited resources, tapped into this buzz to counter negative stories in the established media, recruit new members and organize dozens of events. “#JezWeCan became a household phrase, Corbynmania became a ‘thing’ and people actually discussed Corbynomics in the pub,” an aide said on Facebook.

“Twitter buzz doesn’t necessarily convert to votes” — Claire Martin, editor.

Professor Alan Finlayson, a political scientist at the University of East Anglia, said Corbyn’s campaign has illustrated “a profound shift in the ways in which political communication takes place” in Britain.
And yet, conventional news media still holds huge sway in Britain. And while Corbyn’s social media savvy may have tapped into a disaffected niche and propelled him ahead of three other lacklustre candidates, he’ll need a bigger platform to build a serious opposition to the Conservatives.
“Twitter buzz doesn’t necessarily convert to votes,” Claire Martin, editor and head of content at Kantar, said.
Come Monday, if Corbyn wins, he’ll have to adopt a broader, more professional, more conventional media strategy, according to political journalists, analysts and operatives who have closely observed the leadership campaign.
And that means courting some of the mainstream journalists and editors who have openly doubted his credentials as leader.

Chaos

For all their success on social media, the Corbyn campaign’s relationships with conventional news media have been erratic, according to several reporters who covered the leadership battle.
The media relations unit began as a “complete amateur operation” and improved as the campaign went on, but reporters still complained that calls went unreturned, that it was hard to get answers to questions, that there didn’t appear to be a clear message, and that public appearances were at times “nothing short of chaotic.” Carmel Powell, Corbyn’s head of press, is regarded as sharp, but she at times seemed to be operating on her own and overstretched, reporters said.
That’s understandable, given that Corbyn entered the race at the last minute and never expected to be the frontrunner. He is unlikely to be troubled by journalists’ complaints. Failing to win more support from newspapers hasn’t hindered his campaign; if anything, the more the press attacked him, the more it galvanized his core supporters.
But if Corbyn is to succeed in the leader’s office, insiders said, he will need to quickly assemble a well-oiled media machine to start winning over skeptics, build relationships with commentators and editors, prevent damaging PR gaffes, and project an air of competence.
From his first day, Corbyn would face a Conservative party determined to portray Labour as reckless and unelectable; a hostile right-wing press that will be unlikely to ease off in their coverage; and numerous disgruntled MPs in his own party keen to oust him.
“It’s going to be a fantastically terrible period for Labour,” Roy Greenslade, a media commentator for the Guardian, said.
To counter this, Corbyn would bring some competent people into the leader’s office with him, including Simon Fletcher, his well-regarded chief of staff. He can rely on support and advice from some sympathetic media pundits, notably Owen Jones of The Guardian. And he should be able to draw some experienced, battle-hardened staff from the trades unions.

“I can’t imagine him offering an olive branch” — Roy Greenslade.

But an exodus of senior Labour aides if he wins is expected to leave the party denuded of experienced hands. Tom Baldwin and Bob Roberts, top communications advisers for Ed Miliband, the last Labour leader, have left. Other aides are also likely to jump ship, unwilling to stick around and be associated with what they perceive as a doomed leadership, party sources said.
“He’s not going to know what’s hit him,” one Labour aide said. “I don’t think you can underestimate, on a practical level [how difficult the transition will be].”
Corbyn’s spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s unlikely, whatever his media strategy, that Corbyn would make overtures to the right-wing papers, such as the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, which have attacked him most vociferously. He has been publicly critical during the campaign about Rupert Murdoch’s hold over British media, and supporters would be horrified at any sign that he was willing to court the press barons to plead for more favorable coverage. Miliband was pilloried after posing with a copy of the Sun.
“I can’t imagine him offering an olive branch,” Greenslade said. “I can’t imagine if he did that it would lead to any change in the nature of their coverage.”
However, Corbyn could try to win over the centrist and left-wing newspapers and broadcasters such as the BBC, which are obliged to be impartial.
The Guardian, in an editorial last month, formally backed Yvette Cooper for the leadership, expressing reservations about Corbyn’s electoral appeal and his ability to hold Labour together. It was one of new editor Katharine Viner’s first big calls since replacing Alan Rusbridger in the summer.
There’s a tension in the Guardian newsroom, insiders say, between those who see Corbyn as a disaster for the Labour party’s chances of returning to power, and those who regard him as a positive force who has inspired young voters and brought new energy to the left.
If he can persuade some of the former that he is more than an insurgent, it would be a start.