Brighton Pavilion is being watched by the entire country.

Unlike most of the seats in constituencies across Sussex and the UK, it could realistically be won by the Tories, the Greens or Labour.

It goes without saying that in the run-up to the general election, Conservative candidate Charlotte Vere, Caroline Lucas, of the Green Party, and Labour’s Nancy Platts will be out campaigning on doorsteps – not forgetting Bernie Millam of the Liberal Democrats or Nigel Carter of UKIP.

But in an era of 24-hour TV news, theargus.co.uk, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and countless blogs, do we still need doorstep canvassing from the candidates?

The Argus conducted our own bit of doorstep canvassing in Ladies’ Mile Road, Patcham, held by the Tories on Brighton and Hove City Council and an area which falls within the Brighton Pavilion constituency.

We called on residents in the area to find out if they responded to door-knocking from candidates.

Clive Robinson, a 55-year-old retired aircraft engineer, told us: “I’m not sure whether I’d bother walking down to the polling station to vote. They’ve all got similar policies.

“The only party I would vote for would be the Greens and I might be persuaded to vote if they knocked on my door.”

Arline Bowman, a 70-yearold retired British Airways worker, said she was disappointed that none of the candidates had bothered to knock on her door during the run-up to this election and the last.

She added: “I came to this country as an immigrant in 1961 and all the time I have been here I’ve never taken anything off the state. If the candidates came to the door I would say that immigration is a big problem in this country – and I’m saying that as an immigrant myself.”

But according to experts, the point of knocking on doors is for parties to gauge their support.

Paul Webb, Professor of Politics, at the University of Sussex, said: “I don't think there is any other significant reason for canvassing.

“It is all about getting the vote out. A feeling started to emerge among political scientists from the 1960s onwards that door-stepping voters would eventually become obsolete as communicating via television took over.

“However, this view has largely been reassessed over the past 10 to 15 years as a number of researchers have all shown in rather different ways that local constituency level campaigning does have a significant effect on turnout and voting support.

“Canvassing is a key element of this constituency effort, of course. It is not usually designed to engage campaign volunteers in debates with voters.

“It's not about persuading people which way to cast their vote - so much as identifying likely support so that a big effort can be made on polling day to make sure that likely supporters do actually turn out and vote.”

Is canvassing a waste of time? Leave your comments below.