Living in a digital world

A political time bomb

“A week is a long time in politics.”, Harold Wilson famously said. Better make that a day – or even a matter of hours – in the online world. The ever expanding range of communicated messages – as part of an official campaign strategy or musings from public networks/forums – means the PR and marketing teams on all political sides need to be able to proactively produce and adapt their responses in real-time.

The BBC has christened this development ‘E-Democracy’ – the emergence of an open platform for politicians and the populus to engage in unrestricted dialogue. As technology has spun forward it has actually brought back the very essence of a ‘vote’ – having a voice. This, of course, can work both ways. Barack Obama, like most of the candidates, has created a unique YouTube page that archives footage of all his speeches.

It is an attractive idea – the web permits every party to promote their own particular line of positive propaganda, free from the regulatory ties that come with television and radio broadcasts. The spirit of fair competition can be thrown out of the window online. The formats employed may be rallying blog entries or engaging video posts but beneath the sheen, this is politics with the gloves off.

Avoiding editorially controlled media may also only be delaying the inevitable. Rather than receiving a slapped wrist from a select group of informed political press commentators, politicians seriously risk leaving themselves open to a barrage of insulting posts in close proximity to their carefully constructed, squeaky clean video links (there aren’t many prime ministers before Gordon Brown who can claim to have been labelled ‘British scum’ so publicly or so often).

Similarly, a throwaway faux-pas that previously would have spread only slowly, can now prompt a fatal backlash in an instant (as in the case of failed presidential hopeful George Allen). Breaking down the barrier between figureheads of influential bodies and the baying crowd, is simultaneously democratic utopia and, behind the scenes, a never ending tightrope act. The challenge for politicians moving forward is no longer that of letting people be heard, but being seen to listen.

February 1, 2008 - Posted by contim | Uncategorized | Barack Obama, E-Democracy, George Allen, Harold Wilson, youtube