Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T03:27:38.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Role of Digital Media in Singapore’s General Election 2020

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2021

Get access

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how politics and societies operate worldwide. Stay-at-home restrictions were imposed, to varying extents, in around seventy per cent of countries globally. In Singapore, the government imposed a “circuit breaker”, or a lock-down, in April 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19. During the circuit breaker, most workplaces were closed except for those providing essential services, and schools moved to full home-based learning. The priority to manage community spread led to a slew of social-distancing measures, which remained in place even after Singapore lifted the circuit breaker on 1 June. It was amidst this disruption that Singapore held its 13th General Election on 10 July 2020. In the run up to the election, the Elections Department (ELD) announced new campaigning guidelines for political candidates. Some of the changes included the limitation of walkabouts and door-to-door campaigning to groups of not more than five and a prohibition on physical election rallies and large gatherings. In view of the new restrictions, all political parties and constituents were given additional airtime on national television. In addition to the party political broadcasts, the ELD introduced the constituency political broadcasts (CPBs) to give political candidates more airtime. Also, for the first time in Singapore's election history, a political debate featuring candidates from the People's Action Party (PAP), the Workers’ Party (WP), the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) was broadcast live on national television and simultaneously streamed on YouTube.

Given the campaigning restrictions, political parties ramped up their digital outreach efforts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Apart from the CPBs that were aired on television, voters tuned in to e-rallies and candidate speeches via the official social media accounts of political parties. Because of the shift of political campaigning to the online space, in the lead-up to Polling Day on 10 July the 2020 election was much hyped as an “Internet election”.

This chapter will examine the role of digital media during the election, with a focus on citizen engagement. Our observations indicate that the COVID-19 restrictions did not stymie the engagement of voters with the election. Social media and instant messaging (IM) platforms were verdant grounds for citizen-generated content, which ranged from information-packed voting resources to satire-laden memes.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×