As Jeremy Corbyn wins the campaign but not the election, media expert John Jewell assesses the influence of the right-wing press

warning for potential Labour voters: “A generation after the end of the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of almost every ruinous and oppressive hardLeft regime worldwide, you would be helping to establish a new one, right here in Britain. It would be the gravest mistake this country has ever made.”

Both the Sun and Mail were to a certain degree in panic mode, because, as my colleague Professor Justin Lewis pointed out, as the campaign progressed so the public perception of Corbyn changed. Before the campaign the Prime Minister was in a strong position, with YouGov reporting a positive rating of +9 while Corbyn was -28 (a 37-point gap). But by June 1-2, Corbyn’s rating had actually moved ahead of May’s (Corbyn -2 to May’s -5).

The reasons for such a staggering turnaround are many, with most commentators in the immediate aftermath of the result comparing the Conservatives’ appallingly run operation with Labour’s much more positive, inclusive approach.

But there’s much more to it than that, of course. After the two main parties’ manifestos were launched, news bulletins began – in stark contrast to sections of the press – to concentrate on policy issues. A research team from Cardiff University led by Stephen Cushion examined evening bulletins and found, broadly speaking, Labour received as much airtime in the week of its manifesto launch as the Tories. However, as the research further shows, Labour’s plans were viewed as radical, despite the fact that – as we know now – 40% of the electorate voted for them.

Then there’s Corbyn’s deliberate targeting of the youth vote. The promise to abolish tuition fees undoubtedly helped mobilise students and while we should be wary of figures telling us that 72% of 18 to 24-year-olds actually turned out to vote, a survey after the ballot of 14,000 people in that age group found that two-thirds of respondents had indeed voted Labour.

Labour’s use of social media was also strategically astute. Obviously aware that any dialogue with the print media was never going to be fruitful, Labour moved physically into its traditional heartlands while investing time and money online. Its campaign, for the most part anyway, eschewed the negativities that we have come to expect from modern political communication and instead accentuated the universal benefits of a Labour government.

“For the many and not the few” became the deliberately optimistic soundbite as the party utilised Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The great thing about social media is its ability to create communities wherever the locality. As Jag Singh, whose MessageSpace company provided services to the Conservative campaign, told the Guardian, Labour built a movement on positivity and

Dr John Jewell is director of undergraduate studies at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture.