Television was the biggest influence on swaying Scots voters, research says

People turned to the TV over social media and family and friends, according to nationwide study

Seven in ten Scots ranked television as having the biggest influence on their vote ahead of the 2017 General Election, new research has revealed.

Comres interviewed 2,038 people online between Wednesday 31 May and Thursday 1 June 2017, with the data weighted by age, gender, region and socio-economic grade to be representative of all British adults aged over 18. According to communications agency The PR Office, which comissioned the research, the influence of television seems to be reflected in the result, with a number of commentators directly attributing May’s lack of engagement in TV debates as affecting the party’s overall performance.

The research highlighted that following television, the most important influences for adults in Scotland were newspapers (51 per cent) and family members (37 per cent).

Radio (23 per cent) and colleagues (10 per cent) were ranked as least likely to impact Scottish adults’ voting decisions.

Nationally, television was the most popular (72 per cent) in terms of influencing a voter’s decision, followed by newspapers (57 per cent) and family members (40 per cent).

In an era where social media is perceived as one of the key sources of information for politics and news, only one in ten Scottish adults (11 per cent) ranked it as their first choice of information.

Labour supporters were more likely to turn to social media with four in 10 (41 per cent) ranking it in their top three influencers compared to nearly one in six (17 per cent) Conservative supporters.

Shimon Cohen, chairman, The PR Office, said: “Our findings beforehand were clearly reflected in the final results of the General Election. Theresa May didn’t seem able to engage the electorate through television in any way and by refusing to take part in the TV debate she may well have alienated voters in England. Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, appeared to connect and ran a grassroots campaign that included a lot of key media elements.

“You also don’t see billboards, posters and other means of outdoor political ads anymore. Perhaps in the era of ‘fake news’, the public is trusting images and video content more.”

0 May didn’t take part in TV debates