Local political bloggers debate: who’s best?
A promising new local blog has surfaced on my blog radar: Reading List.
The blog has a local politics theme. Its Lib Dem author, “Oranjepan” , who I strongly suspect is also responsible for the political blog Not Yet Out Of The Woods, explained:
I’m immensely annoyed about the coverage of local politics in this bijou borough of ours, so I’ve decided to start up this blog in order to create a space for a balanced commentary of events.
Frankly there have been lots of claims made about which side is better than the rest at using teh interwebs to communicate their messages best, but I’m not convinced by any of them. Willis, Griffiths and Jones go hammer and tongs at it pushing their usual agendas, but I’d like to see them explaining what difference they think their online presence has made, or is it just an outlet to express their own frustrations?
Oranjepan was referring to opinions initially published by independent councillor Tony Jones (December 2008) and more recently by Tory councillor Richard Willis (January 2009), before Jane Griffiths joined the debate.
Richard considered the online presence of local parliamentary candidates and current MPs on his blog, Richard Willis’s Blog, launched last December. In his entry Tech Savvy or Luddite?, Richard compares sites by Rob Wilson MP, Gareth Epps, Anneliese Dodds, Rob White, Alok Sharma, Patrick Murray and Martin Salter MP.
I can’t say that I agree with all that Richard wrote (is Anneliese Dodds’ “microscopic font” “noteworthy”? And where is the link pointing to such a page?), but it’s nevertheless interesting to see such analysis emerge.
The use of social media by local politicians is worthy of further and more comprehensive independent study, I believe, to include also Richard’s blog (which features a rather grainy image of the councillor and no Search), as well as other websites of note, such as the satirical muckspReading.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Thanks for the coverage.
Yes, the use of social media is a big theme in politics.
It is burgeoning because it is a way of connecting people with each other to talk about issues of mutual concern without the filter of intermediaries. Communicating more effectively with each other means we are better able to meet and interact with like-minded people and solve the problems we all face.
So politics is a prime area of application for this end.
The election of the new US President highlights the potential of technology as it was partly facilitated by the explosion in web activity: the hope Barack Obama engenders is primarily a response to the ability fostered by the web for people to engage directly in debate with each other.
No longer do we need to feel misrepresented by others who have their careers to look after - opening access to subjects means we can now better represent ourselves!
No longer do we need to feel aggravated by the regular controversies which arise over global threats (such as terrorism or environmental change) or proposed developments (such as the IDR or Heathrow) - enabling wider access to the forum of debate means we now have the scope to find solutions which can satisfy everyone!
January 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
http://bythemuddybanksofthethames.blogspot.com/ is kind enough to include my http://www.greenreading.blogspot.com/ which was missed by most in this discussion.
Adrian Windisch Green Party Candidate for Reading West