From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hashtag
Pip at a
polling station for the
EU referendum in 2016
Dogs at polling stations or #dogsatpollingstations is a popular
hashtag and
Internet meme on
social media during an
election in the UK and other countries such as
Australia .
[1] Typically, the dogs are photographed waiting for their owners outside the
polling station and the pictures then posted on services such as
Instagram or
Twitter .
[2]
[3]
The hashtag became popular in the UK general elections of
2015 and
2017 .
[4]
[5]
The
2019 United Kingdom general election was held in December and thus many of the photographs had a seasonal theme such as showing the dog wearing a
Santa hat . Politicians who participated included
Boris Johnson , with his dog
Dilyn , and
Sadiq Khan with his
Labrador , Luna.
[6]
Ed Davey posted a picture of his family's
guinea pig , Carrot, as they do not have a dog. Other animals, such as horses, also made appearances.
[7]
[8]
[9]
Semiotic analysis of the photographs may indicate the political alignment or voting preference of the dogs' owners.
[1]
References
^
a
b Caple, Helen (2019), "Lucy says today she is a Labordoodle": how the dogs-of-Instagram reveal voter preferences", Social Semiotics , 29 (4): 427–447,
doi :
10.1080/10350330.2018.1443582 ,
S2CID
149303152
^
Dogs at polling stations: Pooches at the polls , BBC, 12 December 2019
^ Fidler, Matt (12 December 2019),
"Taking the lead: dogs at polling stations – in pictures" , Guardian
^ Allen, Tony (23 August 2017),
"10 years of hashtags that changed Twitter" , The Independent
^ Ruck, Joanna (8 June 2017).
"Dogs at polling stations – in pictures" . The Guardian .
ISSN
0261-3077 . Retrieved 8 March 2021 .
^ Hogan, Michael (12 December 2019),
"Forget Boris Johnson v Jeremy Corbyn… the real political rivalry is between Dilyn the dog and El Gato the cat" , The Telegraph
^ Betts, Marc (12 December 2019),
"Social media, dogs and even a guinea pig: The trend of pets at polling stations" , The New European
^ Brown, Faye (12 December 2019),
"Dogs at polling stations upstaged by 'horses with causes' " , The Metro
^ Hassan, Jennifer.
"Dogs at polling stations are always big in Britain. This election also brought horses and reindeer" . Washington Post .
ISSN
0190-8286 . Retrieved 8 March 2021 .