Concern that the mainstream media were ignoring them has helped nationalists reach out to young people on social media.
Concern that the mainstream media were ignoring them has helped nationalists reach out to young people on social media
The Herald has now come out in support of Scottish independence.
Whether it is a sign of things to come, or simply a clever move to up its circulation during the most important period in Scottish history for 300 years, the move seemed a significant one.
If nothing else, it disproves the widely held nationalist belief that the mainstream press are uniformly against them.
From ham-fisted coverage of Mark Carney’s currency speech to Andrew Marr pompously informing the first minister of Scotland that the country would struggle to join the EU, even outlets normally trusted by the Scottish left have become viewed as a weapon in the unionist camp’s war against independence.
But despite these concerns over media bias, support for independence has grown remarkably over the past few months, with a recent poll showing that a swing of just two per cent would be enough for a Yes Vote.
During the recent SNP conference in Aberdeen, Alex Salmond highlighted one of the differences between the two campaigns:
“The people are coming towards us. Political public meetings are being revived. Halls have been crowded… Last month the BBC finally discovered this grassroots campaign and tried to cover both sides of the debate. Their problem was that the No campaign struggled to find them any grassroots group to film – or even a single grassroot.”
The jibe hurts Better Together because it is true. No one has taken a lawnmower to the Unionist grassroots campaign; there was none growing to begin with.
And while the No campaign has wheeled out figures like Lord Robertson to make threats of cataclysm, Yes has side-stepped what it sees as the media’s deafness and attempted to meet the people of Scotland directly.
These town hall meetings – springing up across Scotland – are combined with a constant nationalist presence across social media.
Online platforms like Wings Over Scotland and Bella Caledonia are churning out well-written, heavily biased content to big audiences. Between them, these two have a bigger Twitter presence than Better Together. Yes has double that again.
These places provide a stage for Yes to refute unionist claims, and amplify their mistakes. Going on Twitter can feel like being back in the SNP conference.
When pro-union groups make a similar move it does not gather the same traction. Within hours of its launch, No Borders – a kind of unionist rival to the National Collective pro-Yes cultural group – was mired in controversy.
In fact critics questioned whether a group funded by a London-based, Conservative-donating millionaire (and coordinated by a London-based PR firm) could be considered either grassroots or Scottish at all.
Part of Better Together’s problem lies in its nature – it is much harder for a three-party coalition to offer a clear alternative to independence.
They may now have come together to form the Axis of Devo – but theirs is not a clear message that can be translated into 140 characters and spread across the internet.
Yes are particularly popular among young people and with 16 and 17 year olds awarded the vote for the first time in British history (around 100,000 have already registered), the internet is key to reaching them.
This is a problem for Better Together because it looks like the debate is becoming a battle between Yes – using modern communications to promise the future – and Better Together, promising more of the same, using the media of old.
Now none of this means Yes will or should win.
Better Together is still ahead in the polls and there are no guarantees the youth vote will swing it. Anyone who has ever seen a teenager on ketamine will know better than to conflate youth with energy.
But staying ahead in the polls should not be the only reason for Better Together to engage with the grassroots more – a vote for the union will mean very little if the public are voting because of the clear holes in the Yes camp’s message. A win driven by negatives will be no win at all.
So the nationalists may have been slightly paranoid in thinking the media was against them – and it may be too soon to start thinking of the online campaign as some sort of electronic indyfada.
But paranoid or not, it was this concern that drove energy into social media and helped them reach out to young people – something political parties across the spectrum have struggled with for years.
This rising support now seems to have brought the Herald on board, and there are claims that the Scottish Sun may have plans to follow suit.
In this sense the nationalists should not be angry with the media for ignoring them, but thankful. It was the press that set the cybernats free.
116 Responses to “Scottish nationalists shouldn’t be angry with the media for ignoring them”
Alec
Hehe, you know you’ve upset the vulgar Leninists when all they can say is that you need a lie down. What next, that I smell and eat worms?
Unlike decent and honest YESers like Kate Higgins – who has encountered him, and thinks he’s a kunckle-dragging, misogynist thug – you are a gutless wonder
Like Stewpot back in 2004 – when he thought he could bully a new games programme, only to get bitch-slapped by Dino Dini and people who’d met him – you thought you could scream and shout on this thread, and all would crumble because you are a sincere debater but a liar and cheat who thinks rules are for the little people.
You thought you could whine about being called a Nazi (you weren’t) then compel pro-Union commenters to atone for some loser troll on Twitter issuing ridiculously implausible threats (rather like Stewpot does, come to mention it) because you are both aggressive and passive aggressive.
You thought you could reflexively call any reference to Stewpot’s filthy remarks a “lie” even though they are exactly what he said on his own blog because you are a totalitarian and post-modern hypocrite who doesn’t care about facts rather than making words mean whatever she wants them to means.
It didn’t work, and you’ve folded like a pack of cards because you are a coward who doesn’t know how to respond when people are not impressed by your histrionics.
Go on, scuttle back to Wangs and get Stewpot to tell you have done me good… there there, wag your little tail at your God like a good doggie. He won’t come here, will he? Because he’s laughing at you and the other useful idiots with his nonsense about being a Reverend but not wanting to reveal his church ‘cos religion is a personal matter.
But he could do me proper, no? Yes, Stewpot is teh hero… except when he’s having his arse handed to him on a plate by Somerset small claims court.
Is it true he’s facing a £30k legal fee? Is he still distributing by subscription half-inched computer games?
~alec
Jeanne Tomlin
Speaking of trolling, look in the mirror. Or have that lie-down before you give yourself a stroke.
I must admit I find it more amusing to be called a Leninist than a Nazi. I’ve been called both in this thread. I must be doing something right.
Charles Addison
So losing it!
Alec
No, you’ve been called only a Leninist, and I bet you don’t know what it means.
There you go again, nothing to say but juvenile flicking-off remarks (whilst bizarrely thinking it’s only yow being the mature, reasoned one). The adage about keeping your trap shut and only being thought a fool springs to mind.
You entered this thread with a trolling about someone no-one here has heard of or associated with and tried to tarnish pro-Union supporters with it, just as that one-hit wonder Scotscanadein did with Loyaltist thugs.
Yet you who actually frequents Stewpot’s blog and admits to agreeing with him – along with all the big hitters in your camp – don’t think the fact he’s a loathsome sac of shit with disgusting views matters a jot.
That’s because you’re a sectarian lout, filled with loathing of and highly attuned to the shortcomings – real and imagined – on the other side whilst complete uncaring of those on yours.
Stewpot thinks the 96 were responsible and the Police were blameless. This is the dreck you’re defending.
I DARE you to go to Liverpool and say that. I DARE you to go to Ibrox and say that. You won’t because you’re a moral coward and intellectual fraud..
~alec
Spammo Twatbury
“Stewpot said what he said about Hillsborough.”
Indeed he did, and people can read it for themselves, which is what makes it so mystifying that you keep blatantly LYING about what he said.