Secrets of their smartphones: see how voters follow the news in memes

Ever wondered what people really get up to on their phones? To understand what news the British public are reading and watching during this election, the Guardian has partnered with research agency Revealing Reality to conduct an in-depth study of the phone usage of six individuals.

Each of the volunteers had their entire phone screen usage recorded as a video file for three days at the end of November, which was then analysed for election-related material. In addition to the broad conclusions, this is what we learned about each person, who agreed for their cases to be discussed using a pseudonym. The findings offer a snapshot, rather than a representative sample, of how Britons are consuming news in the 2019 election.

Fiona, 22, student, Bolton

A Brexit-backing fan of Boris Johnson who feels Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to security, Fiona is one of the most obsessive case studies the analysts had ever seen, regularly reading news articles to the end from sites including the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and BBC website.

Fiona sees articles on Brexit-backing Facebook groups and places an emphasis on fact-checking and consuming alternative points of view for her own benefit. But she adopts a different stance for her public social media profiles, seeking out pieces with provocative headlines and sharing them on Facebook to provoke left-wing friends into arguments.

The analysts observed her take this approach when she shared a story about Corbyn’s wealth. She explained that a military veteran she knew had told her the Labour leader was a millionaire. This prompted her to google Corbyn’s net worth, navigating between different search results from outlets such as the Sun. She said it took her a while to find the information, but she eventually stopped on the far-right JihadiWatch website, as the numbers on its article matched information she had heard before.

She used this information as the basis of a Facebook post attacking Corbyn and his wife for being hypocrites – which sparked heated arguments between her Facebook friends.

Shazi, 37, health worker, Sheffield
A remain-backing Corbyn fan, Shazi only became interested in politics in recent years and did not grow up consuming traditional news outlets. She doesn’t own a TV and doesn’t read newspapers, with her news consumption almost entirely existing of reading Twitter. She strongly believes that the mainstream media is negative and untrustworthy.

Because she was politicised by social action campaigns around housing, she largely follows fellow Labour activists. As a result her entire news consumption is almost exclusively pro-Labour and anti-Conservative activist material – with Paul Mason’s Twitter account and Jeremy Corbyn’s Twitter account among her main sources of news. This is mixed with a smattering of BBC news headlines that she will read but she very rarely clicks the links.

The analysts observed her activity on the night of the Question Time leaders’ debate specials in Sheffield. Rather than watch any footage from inside the BBC event where the audience questions party leaders, she experienced the event by watching video after video posted by activists outside the venue of the crowd chanting Corbyn’s name.

Audrey, 59, administrator, Norfolk
A social conservative from a Labour-supporting family, Audrey only started voting a decade ago and has limited interest in politics or news – complaining the news is often offputting because it is too extreme. She voted leave in the EU referendum to reduce immigration and “British people would have to do the jobs”. She is considering voting Conservative for the first time because “Boris would get Brexit done”.

Her views are shaped heavily by friends on Facebook, where two individuals regularly post anti-Labour memes with crude photoshops of Corbyn and text-heavy graphics with titles such as “Enoch Powell Was Right?”.

One day a friend shared a like to the site “UKUpdates.co.uk”, which had copied and pasted a news story from the Sun with the headlines “Jeremy Corbyn to give all EU Migrants the right to bring their families to the UK” under a picture of the Labour leader. Audrey replied with an angry emoji without reading the piece, which was being shared in her friendship group.

Her only source of mainstream news comes through occasional use of the news aggregator app Upday, which is pre-installed on Samsung phones and pushes headlines from mainstream outlets such as Metro.co.uk or HuffPost to users. The analysts concluded Audrey’s exposure to political news tends to happen more by chance – either via Upday and via friends on Facebook – it would not be unusual for her to sometimes see very little about the election, and on one of the days she took part she only came across one election-related piece of content.

Charlie, 37, accounts clerk, Sunderland
A former Lib Dem and UKIP voter who backed leave in the referendum, he is tempted to vote for Johnson “because he feels Boris will get Brexit done” but is worried the Tories want to “line their pockets”. His main desire is more funding for public services such as the NHS – although he’s aware Labour are offering more money than the Conservatives, he doesn’t believe Corbyn will be able to keep his promise. However, this view was challenged when he saw a viral video on Facebook of doctors from the NHS talking about the impact that Tory cuts had had on the health service – prompting him to doubt his assessment.

He rarely watched television news but would sometimes watch Newsnight or Question Time on his phone, listening to the latter on audio-only at work to keep him in touch with the views of the wider public.

Although he saw a handful of headlines from the BBC and Sky News, he did not click on any of them. Instead, the analysts found Charlie consumed his limited amount of news mainly through memes and photos shared by friends on Facebook – sometimes attacking mainstream media bias but also posts mocking Diane Abbott and a post from a Facebook page called ‘Bloke Diary’ celebrating Johnson saying the word “boobies” at a school. A keen gamer, he is considered to be one of the most politically engaged individuals in his social group and friends often ask him who they should vote for.

Lucy, 29, events manager, London
A self-described left-wing remain voter who is not actively involved in politics, she is deciding whether to vote for Lib Dem or Labour in this election.

Her main sources of political news are word-of-mouth discussions at work and the BBC news app, which she likes to scroll repeatedly while rarely clicking on election-related headlines.

However, she also encountered pro-Labour content through social media, such as Jeremy Corbyn’s Instagram account – where she enjoyed pictures of the Labour leader baking a cake. Although she sometimes read the Evening Standard, she had tried to cut down since George Osborne became editor because “a free newspaper shouldn’t be political”.

Although she read up on the ITV leaders’ debate after seeing an Instagram story post from a friend, she was not heavily involved. The analysts concluded that “throughout the three days she saw very little content that was not in line with her own views”.

Rosie, 24, London, works for an NGO
An active Labour party member and remain voter, the majority of content that Rosie sees on Twitter is supportive of the Labour Party campaign.

Most of Rosie’s information relating to the election comes to her via Twitter - where she follows a wide range of commentators, news outlets, MPs and political parties, as well as friends, colleagues and other personal contacts. However, she often reads headlines and joins in discussions on social media without clicking articles.

As a campaigner she listens to political podcasts and reads the Politico morning newsletter, meaning she consumes an unusually large amount of political content compared to most Britons.

While she saw social media posts from a variety of sources, those on the Conservatives’ side were predominantly from party sources, while those on Labour’s side also included personal support, either from journalists or influencers.