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Social media: alternative views of the European elections
On 25 May, 400 million citizens are asked to elect members of the European Parliament for the next 5 years. The social media and alternative communication tools offer users new ways to share information on the European Parliament, its work and its powers.
New dedicated applications, videos and infographics are available on the European election and social media web site. Here is a brief roundup of the various information channels offered by the European Parliament’s information campaign.
A million social media views
The European Parliament offers two Facebook applications for the European elections.
The « I’m a voter » balloon launch and race application offers you a fun way to tell your friends that you are voting and why. The longest chain on this application, available in 24 languages, currently links 12 people over 102,000 km.
The "A Taste of Europe" application enables you to create a Facebook event to get together with your friends on election results night – 25 May – share European recipes and cook. Several renowned European chefs, from 7 EU member states, will offer their recipes via this application. From 18,000 clicks to date, the most popular recipe so far is a Lithuanian one, for cold beetroot soup.
The storychangers.eu site invites young Europeans to vote on 22-25 May. This on-line event offers an interactive video animation story to which studio artists will give alternative endings suggested by users from 6 to 9 May. #Storychangers has already had over 2,480,000 views on Youtube and Facebook and 635 suggested alternative endings.
Also for young people, and especially those voting for the first time, the "And then came a lot of sheep" video is available on Youtube and Facebook.
The European Parliament has also sent 28 blue and yellow figures, known as YABs and decorated in the 28 EU member states’ colours, on a journey starting in each member state’s capital city. The YABs must make it back to Brussels before the elections. You can follow their progress on Instagram, with the hashtag #YaBs2014.
Available on election web site:
Take the "time machine" virtual trip between 1979 et 2014.
Use "Box your EP" as a fun way to explore Parliament and its decisions, and to take part in quizzes.
Browse articles, infographics, posters and portraits of Europeans on the site, or go to the download centre to download and print visuals, or check out campaign TV and radio spots in all EU languages
A pie chart projection of seats in the new Parliament is also available on the site. Updated every week, it reflects the current state of European public opinion. These projections are produced in collaboration with TNS Opinion.
For a complete overview, please refer to the link on the right which also shows the progress of the various activities under way.
