Experimenting with Web2.0 and UK politics.
Lets have some fun with the new technologies and see which ones may help the political process. I guess there will be a couple of very broad subjects to look at over the coming few months.
1 - How can new technology help Labour engage with the public.
2 - How Labour can use technology to improve our electioneering.
The rise of on line social networking is a positive thing. By definition social networking brings people together. Political parties are well aware of these developments. Blogs have been used for several years, online videos are becoming fashionable in the political process and Ming the Merciless held a skypecast a few days ago.
New forms of communication should co-exist with traditional media and political process. I've seen arguments from technology skeptics who say that politicians using technology is exclusive rather than inclusive.
I don't share this view, sure currently only a relatively small part of the population read blogs and have access to broadband but using these new technologies does not mean that politicians should stop communicating via traditional means. They should use every channel available to them.
My gramps is a traditional voter, he reads two national daily papers, he reads the local newspaper, watches the six o clock and local news, he gossips with his neighbours and he'll read election literature that comes through the door. As result he has a good understanding of what is going on around him in the local area.
I'm not a traditional voter, I do not regularly read daily newspapers (I especially stay away from local papers). I don't watch national or local news. Ok I do gossip with the neighbours. But for media consumption I would much prefer to use my RSS reader and skypecaster to understand whats going on around my area and at the moment the content simply isn't their.
So over the course of this blog lets have a play with what we can do and help possibly help Labour engage with a growing number of people.
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2 comments:
Good luck but don't forget that a letter in a humble local paper will probably be read by a thousand times as many people as an average blog post will. And such letters can be targeted on those key swing voters in marginal seats who decide our fate at election time, not sure that even web2.0 is quite up to that yet!...
Absolutely agree, 'traditional media' still far out weighs 'new media' in terms of reach. And I really want to make the point that embracing new media should be in addition to and not at the exclusion of all the existing campaign/media outlets.
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