A group of journalism students has carried out a survey for the BBC Politics Show on the potential impact of social networking sites on the forthcoming election.

Five trainee reporters from Leeds Trinity University College interviewed voters in a nearby marginal constituency to find out how they thought online campaigning would affect the result.

Politicians are increasingly using social networking sites, blogs and You Tube to get their message across.

However the students found that as far as the electorate is concerned, Facebook and Twitter are not the way to win votes.

Only 60pc of respondents had access to the internet at home, just half of whom think online campaigning would affect the election

Even the internet savvy student population in the city were unmoved by the politicians’ blogs, tweets and status updates.

While 98pc of the students surveyed have a Facebook account, they view it as a social resource, and do not expect the site to influence their vote.

Student James Crossling said: “I found that people don’t really use the internet to research politics. Only one of the 20 people I spoke to would go on the internet to research an issue further.”

Fellow survey team member Faith Wilkinson added: “85pc of those we contacted considered themselves to be working class, and they weren’t taking any notice of what was happening on the internet.

“80pc said they would vote for the person who had the biggest presence in the community irrespective of their political stance.”

The survey was conducted by broadcast news trainees James, Faith, Jess Bennett, Laura Pennington and Lauren Slater.

They visited 75 households in three distinct areas in the Liberal Democrat held marginal seat of Leeds North West – a former council estate in north Leeds, a more affluent residential area in nearby Otley and student flats in Headingley.

BBC Yorkshire’s political correspondent Len Tingle interviewed the trainees, and their findings were broadcast on the Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

The survey team pictured discussing their findings with the BBC’s Len Tingle.