Can you hear me? An analysis on how virtual proceeding affected the content and influence of legislative speeches

During the COVID pandemic, virtual proceedings have been adopted by parliaments across the world as a temporary measure to meet the challenges that comes with lockdown and social distancing. However, virtual proceeding in parliaments could be beneficial beyond mere mitigation during the pandemic and it has been suggested by both scholars and practitioners that they could play a role in parliamentary procedure in the long run. This paper seeks to better understand how virtual proceedings affect the deliberative process in legislative debates. By analysing the content of contribution made by British MPs via teleconferencing software during the pandemic and contrasting them with contributions made by their colleagues in the House of Commons chamber during hybrid sessions, this paper seeks to understand whether virtual proceedings affect the emotion expressed as well as whether participating virtually adversely affect the influence of individual legislators during parliamentary debates.