Tweet, Click, Vote: Twitter and the 2010 Ottawa Municipal Election

Abstract

In Canada, Twitter still played a mostly peripheral role in political communication, mobilization, and organizing in 2010. This study provides a snapshot in time of how Twitter was redefining local political campaigns before social media become ubiquitous in electioneering. Focusing on the 2010 municipal elections in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (the nation’s capital), this study considers how and to what extent social networking platforms help shape the dynamics of local electioneering; it maps the ways in which Twitter was used by the Ottawa-Carleton district school board, the Ottawa catholic school board, the Eastern Ontario French-language public school board, and ward and mayoral candidates for voter outreach; it also identifies what were then novel ways in which voters creatively used Twitter to participate independently in the electoral process and to attempt to influence its outcome. Finally, it discusses how traditional news organizations experimented with social media in covering elections and engaging with audiences and voters.

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