The impact of alt-media on elections

In a collaboration with The Guardian published today we looked at several alt-media sources that are having an impact on the UK’s general election debate.


We found some remarkable figures. Many of the articles published by individuals with strong left or right political views are being shared considerably more than articles by the biggest national news orgs in the UK, including The Guardian, BBC, and The Independent. Sources ranged across the spectrum from The Canary and Skwawkbox to Westmonster and Breitbart.

Source: Kaleida Data, 2017

Another Angry Voice is a Yorkshire-based site published by Thomas Clark. He holds 3 of the Top 10 most-shared articles about the election. The Independent and indy100 perform well compared to others, but most of their most successful articles have earned less than half of Clark’s top-performing post at over 100,000 shares.

Guardian journalist Robert Booth spoke to the university student behind Evolve Politics, Matthew Turner. He captured what we’re seeing brilliantly,

“This kind of dynamic activism is new to the media,” Turner said. “Stories that go viral are stories that you can rally around. I think the vast majority of readers like us because we light a fire in their belly.

Readers of the mainstream media tend to not get that nowadays. We are the ones offering the fight.”

That sentiment was echoed by both the left and the right alt-media sources.

The data behind The Guardian’s report can be found in our UK election coverage explorer. If you are interested in a full set of results to explore on your own, please get in touch. We would be happy to share more data.