Having just been subjected to a tortuous piece on blogging on The Daily Politics Conference Special which seemed to involve talking to a lot of people who had heard of a weblog and one woman who had even "tried it once", oh and Iain Dale, naturally, I thought I would ponder the rise of the political blog in this country.
Then I thought that that would be equally tortuous and I would just say this. As a card carrying member of the Labour Party and possibly even a member of "renewed "New" Labour", or for that matter as a menber of any political party, I owuld prefer that they spent my money on proper policies and public meetings than more marketing shortcuts and guff.
Blogging is not a way to sell things or ideas to people, it's an invitation to a conversation. At least that's what I think. Anyone care to comment?
5 comments:
The only possible use for a political blog might be to "humanise" politicians sufficiently to arouse public interest in the whole political process.
No-one's going to have their party politics changed by reading a blog.
I agree about it being an invitation to a conversation. It's about sharing, not selling. And it would be nice to see politicians become interested in substance, rather than style and hot air - you know, sort of what one would treat a real job like.
Yes, I agree with you. And Steg and Scott, too. I want politicians who actually listen to me, please!
I've been thinking about a response to your query since I first read it and I think I now have a response worth posting.
"Blogging is not a way to sell things or ideas to people, it's an invitation to a conversation."
Blogging is whatever the blogger wants it to be, and I'm not saying that sarcastically: it is in earnest.
From my point of view, "blog" is just the newest word/concept for "web site". Think of "home page" and "portal" - words that are now "of the past" but refer to the same thing: a web site.
The blog format to date is quite standard (ie reverse chronological posting, ability to comment, archives) yet the result of this format is a plethora of possibilities.
As examples, I'll first use my own blogs, with a short description of each
SPAM - just what it says, a collection of SPAM that I've received over the years. No longer updating this one.
Rantz: my main "blog", includes posts over the past 6 years.
23s a blog I do with friends: similar to the first each post (and comment) is 23 words. Exactly.
the birds and friends: a photoblog of my god-sons.
All of the above are "blogs" but each are quite distinct in many ways.
The second of these (Rantz), I would put under the banner of She Weevil's "invitation to a conversation" (not that many actually happen, unless I post about cats). The rest? Not really.
Inviting more conversation...
Rantz
Dang. I didn't proof that properly. This is the correct link to SPAM.
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