Earlier this month the Flemish nationalist party N-VA become the third political party to launch it’s own “news app”. Previously the far-right party Vlaams Belang and the far-left party PVDA launched apps giving their angle on the news. The apps are designed to provide party members, sympathisers and potential voters with information about the parties and their positions of a range of issues more quickly.
The political communication expert Reinout Van Zandycke says that another big advantage of the apps is that they enable the parties to quickly check what their supporters think about new policies.
When it launched its app earlier this month N-VA said “Whether you are a party member or not this is pure political pleasure wherever and whenever you want it”. The app is available in both the Google and Apple apps stores. After just one week 4,000 people had downloaded the app onto their smartphones and tablets.
Like Vlaams Belang’s app that was launched in 2021 and has been downloaded 79,000 times and PVDA’s app that was launched last September and been downloaded 6,000 times, N-VA’s app features both written articles and video clips of MP’s work in parliament and tv interviews. Opinion polls also feature in the app.
News app?
In the app stores the political parties’ apps appear next to newspaper and broadcast media news apps such as VRT NWS. N-VA’s National Secretary Louis Ide concedes that the “news” on offer in his party’s app is “indeed a different kind of news”. "The aim is to appeal to party members and sympathisers. The app is also linked to our membership database and can be used to place orders and purchase books etc.”
Reinout Van Zandycke told VRT News’ podcast ‘Het uur van de waarheid’ that “In essence this is news but framed by the party. People are intelligent enough to realise that these are political party apps and as such the news on them is not objective”.
He also points to the way parties use social media to bring “news” in a misleading way. “There are parties, party members and sympathisers that start their own news platform that claims to be an independent medium. Anyone with a little knowledge of politics will realise that a party is behind this. However, not everyone does realise straight away”.
"On TikTok for example there is RedFox (the youth wing of the far-left PVDA) that interviews people and asks for their views, but with an approach that reflects PVDA’s far left ideology. Vlaams Belang has social media channels such as V-Nieuws that proports to publish independent news from Flanders while the news is framed by Vlaams Belang”.
Quick and effective contact with members
In addition to using their apps for news, the parties also use them to collect data. Reinhout Van Zandycke told VRT News that "The biggest advantage of the apps is that the parties can use them as a sounding board for their members. Imagine if after the elections N-VA has to decide whether to negotiate with Vlaams Belang. In that case the app will be useful to see what the party’s supporters think about it”.
"This has already been done in other countries. Parties link app accounts to their own databases. You often have to provide identification, for example with a party membership card”.
In addition to this the apps are above all a long-term investment on the part of the parties.
"Elections won’t be won as a direct result of the apps, but if a party continually uses them it will get to know its target group and be better able to mobilise people. This can be done through Facebook posts or by handing out flyers. Many politicians underestimate the impact of this in the long term”.
Is it worth the cost?
The apps are unlikely to achieve anything like the success of the popular newspaper and broadcast media apps. Reinhout Van Zandycke told VRT News that "They aren’t designed to appeal to a broad section of the public. Tens of thousands of downloads doesn’t equate to tens of thousands of active users or voters. Certainly, when you consider that you need a million votes to win an election”.
The cost of an app depends on what function you want it to include. "A starters' package for a political app will cost an average of between 20,000 and 60,000 euro. Of course advertising and maintaining the app also costs money.”
For the time being at least the other Flemish parties have no plans to launch their own “news” apps. However, the liberals, the Christian democrats and Vlaams Belang have their own apps for use by party members.