My name is Tristan Hotham, I am a researcher, consultant and PhD candidate at the University of Bath.

I am an expert on Facebook, social media, elections, engagement, content, party politics and campaigning.

My central interests are in social media, elections, political parties and campaigning. My specialisms are UK political parties and the use of Facebook. I utilise a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine the black box of social media campaigning.

I hold two Master’s degrees from the Universities of Bath and Durham, alongside a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Exeter. I currently work on a ESRC funded PhD at the University of Bath – my thesis is titled; “Examining the impact and effectiveness of Facebook on party campaigns”. As well as this I currently operate as a research consultant for Whotargets.me.

My thesis examines the Facebook phenomenon and its role as a campaign tool. Using extracted Facebook data and supportive external data sources such as the BES/EAS and Whotargets.me, this study examines the impact Facebook is having as a campaign tool online, alongside its wider offline implications for parties campaigning in an era of party change. The thesis examines political parties content approaches, engagement and virtual membership. Alongside examining the impact Facebook and social media is having upon how parties are campaigning.

I or my work has been featured in media such as the BBC, New York Times, Reuters, Guardian, Evening Standard and The Economist:

I enjoy public engagement so please get in contact if you would like to hear about my work. My latest podcast appearance, on the Social Minds Podcast, is linked below.

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© Tristan Hotham, 2019.