What impact is social media having on politics? Lords to ask experts
The House of Lords Committee on Political Polling and Digital Media will next week take evidence from digital media experts Professor Farida Vis and James Williams, winner of the inaugural Nine Dots Prize for his essay arguing that digital technologies are ‘making all forms of politics worth having impossible'.
The Committee will then hear from former Labour leader Lord Kinnock on the impact of inaccurate political opinion polling on the 1992 General Election.
The evidence sessions will start at 10:45am on Tuesday 28 November in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords. The full details are:
10:45am
- Professor Farida Vis, Professor of Digital Media, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
- James Williams, Doctoral Candidate, Oxford Internet Institute
11:45am
- Lord Kinnock, former Leader of the Labour Party.
In the first session the questions will focus on the challenges posed by social media on the way the public engages with politics and how political advertising works across the platforms. Witnesses will be asked about the impact of algorithms, bots and ‘fake news' on democracy and the steps that can be taken in the short and medium term to tackle any negative effects.
In the second session with Lord Kinnock the Committee will ask him about opinion polls in relation to the 1992 election, how the Labour Party used private polling during his time as leader and whether greater regulation of the polling industry is required to ensure it improves its accuracy.
