Young voters the most sceptical about social media | PoliticsHome | PH Research
Two-thirds of 19-29 year olds think the likes of Twitter and Facebook are pointless when it comes to political debate, according to a Politics Home (YouGov) survey
Two-thirds of 19-29 year olds think the likes of Twitter and Facebook are pointless when it comes to political debate, according to a Politics Home (YouGov) survey
Twitter has many benefits and can be an effective tool for a long list of things. One of the many important benefits of Twitter is that it can make you a better Communicator. By definition a communicator is- one skilled at conveying information, ideas, or policy to the public. Everything you Twitter is public and theses %u201Ctweets%u201D or public communication can help you to become a more effective overall communicator.This list below illustrates 8 Ways Twitter Can Improve Your Communication Skills:
- You learn to keep you communication pithy. All communication has to be short, to the point and effective all at the same time.
- You have to think before you tweet, similar to the need to think before you speak. Be Careful What You Tweet.
- You have the opportunity to be a student of both effective and ineffective communication; there are millions of Tweeps that fall into both categories.
- You have to learn the art of crafting your message specifically for your audience. What does your audience want to hear from you? What makes them listen?
- You have to find your voice and your style. Are your tweets random, informational, educational, inspirational%u2026 Effective communicators are authentic, real and have no problem being themselves. Be Yourself!
- You learn to embrace the fact that just because you talk doesn%u2019t mean people will listen, developing your audience and creating a tribe is a craft.
- You learn that if you share something that is worthy of repeating people will afford you the courtesy of re-tweeting. {That Rhymed}
- You have to learn that there are times when you need to communicate a lot and there are times when it%u2019s simply OK to say nothing at all.
Do any of these resonate with you? Share any additional ways that Twitter can improve your Communication Skills?
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Of all these one of the most powerful has to be that Twitter and (all other text-based communications media including texting and email) force the writer to think about the audience. This may be the first time in history that the majority of those writing are doing so for a real audience.
Bloggers to be given access to Westminster Parliament (PR Week)
By Matt Wardman %u2022 February 18, 2010
PR Week is reporting that Parliamentary Commons authorities are preparing to bring down the barricades and allow bloggers into Parliament:
House of Commons chiefs are fine-tuning plans to give bloggers privileged access to government communications.
The radical move would see selected bloggers allowed into the Westminster lobby system, provided they meet certain criteria.
PRWeek understands that conversations have been taking place between the Commons authorities and Financial Times political editor George Parker, who is chairman of the parliamentary press gallery.
This is welcome news, but I think the approach is rather more timid than I would prefer, that bloggers need fuller access beyond a far wider spectrum of reporting than just the Lobby, and that the Parliamentary authorities seem to be holding bloggers and journalists responsible for some of the shortcomings of politicians.
Evolutionary Approach
A %u2018gradualist%u2019 approach will be adopted, which does not sound very %u201Cradical%u201D.
Parker told PRWeek recent applications had forced the authorities to revisit the issue. %u2018The system is being tested on a case-by-case basis,%u2019 he said. %u2018There%u2019s no ban on bloggers at the moment, but things are being refined as we go along, because it%u2019s a new form of journalism and the authorities are having to adapt.%u2019
To me this sounds sensible, provided that %u2018gradual%u2019 does not mean %u201Cone minor change and then we stop%u201D.
Worried about Bloggers
Yet the authorities are worried about a free for all:
Parker said: %u2018What the Commons authorities are concerned about is that there should be no precedent set that would create a free-for-all. They don%u2019t want to have the House of Commons over-run by bloggers.%u2019
I don%u2019t buy this. Politicians routinely play far filthier tricks than bloggers could dream up in an opium nightmare, and much blogsphere vitriol comes from attempts to use the medium to spread nefarious rumours.
I think that this is a mirror image of the worries which existed centuries ago when they were concerned about letting reporters in at all. This is rather long quote from the history of Parliamentary Reporting, illustrating that the Parliamentary Authorities have sometimes been more concerned with controlling reporting, rather than facilitating it. From Wikipedia:
Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House were publicly available, but there was no such record of debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of Parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses. As more people became interested in parliamentary debates, more individuals published unofficial accounts of parliamentary debates. Editors were at worst subjected to fines. Several editors used the device of veiling parliamentary debates as debates of fictitious societies or bodies. The names under which parliamentary debates were published include Proceedings of the Lower Room of the Robin Hood Society and Debates of the Senate of Magna Lilliputia.
In 1771 Brass Crosby, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London had brought before him a printer called Miller who dared publish reports of Parliamentary proceedings. He released the man, but was subsequently ordered to appear before the House to explain his actions. Crosby was committed to the Tower of London, but when brought to trial, several judges refused to hear the case and after protests from the public, Crosby was released.
Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates, partly due to the campaigns of John Wilkes on behalf of free speech. There then began several attempts to publish reports of debates. Among the early successes, the Parliamentary Register published by John Almon and John Debrett began in 1775 and ran until 1813.
Where change has happened, it has been through a process of external factors forcing the hand of Parliament, rather than by Parliament choosing to open itself up for public scrutiny. This time is no different, and we should never forget that, despite the runcible protestations, grunts and squeaks from the Honourable and Right Honourable Members, and the Noble Peers.
Greater openness is in everyone%u2019s interest, and there will inevitably be a few ruts and rumbles along the way. But as soon as the pressure is released, the process will begin to reverse through natural inertia.
Acceptance Criteria
Rolling all of that together, %u201Cacceptance criteria%u201D are proposed. Bloggers would need to be %u2018popular%u2019 and have a %u2018track record%u2019.
He added that certain criteria should have to be met by bloggers: %u2018The general criteria we would agree with is that the person applying for the pass should be a proper journalist with a track record of journalism; that they should be operating for a respectable news organisation or website with a reasonably large number of subscribers or viewers; and that they should be using the pass for the purposes of journalism, rather than coming in and commenting on stuff.%u2019
Those will be difficult lines to draw.
%u201CReasonably popular%u201D is relatively easy to define, and could be as straightforward as %u201C10,000 unique users a month%u201D measured in a recognised way, whilst being a recognised commentary site.
However, what is a %u201Crespectable news organisation%u201D? Do campaigning blogs qualify as %u201CNews Organisations%u201D? I think the key here may be in the phrase %u201Cand that they should be using the pass for the purposes of journalism, rather than coming in and commenting on stuff.%u201D That is, the emphasis is on reporting rather than commentary.
Does Comment is Free count? A lot of bloggers have written for the site, but it is a mudpit of debate compared to the vast majority of blogs, yet is an accepted platform. The Heresiarch has not written extensively for other sites, nor has Cranmer, but both put much of the mainstream media to shame on their specialist subjects. What about writers for Open Democracy, Journalism.co.uk, or thinktanks? What about the Wardman Wire %u2013 I hope that we are %u2018respectable%u2019, but I don%u2019t intend to be so if respectable means giving unacceptable control to an external body. Part of the stock in trade of politically or party-aligned blogs such as Liberal Conspiracy, Left Foot Forward, Conservative Home, Labour List and Lib Dem Voice for the next 6 months will be to inflate minor stories into major stories as part of anti-Tory, anti-Labour or anti-something else campaigning, an activity which involves highly selective use of facts as a basis for exaggeration in the hope that other media will think it is %u201Cnews%u201D. Does this undermine their status as %u201Crespectable news organisations%u201D? The same goes for Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes. I don%u2019t see why this should be a problem, as most newspapers have gossip columns. Who is allowed into Parliament from multi-author blogs? Most group blogs mentioned above have from a dozen to perhaps 50 authors. At the Wardman Wire, we have about 25 people on the contributors%u2019 list, but half are dormant or retired %u2013 yet we have added another 6 in the last month. I am not London-based, but I have half a dozen contributors who are based there. How will that be managed?Finally, if it is about %u201Crespectable news organisations%u201D, does that mean that any national newspapers will be expelled? If not, why not?
Worried about the reputation of Parliament
There is also some concern about the reputation of Parliament. This is amusing:
However, the Commons authorities are understood to be concerned that an influx of bloggers into the lobby could further undermine the reputation of Parliament.
My initial reactions is to ask: you think that bloggers can cause significant damage? The blunt answer to worries about the reputation of Parliament is to refer the Commons Authorities to the case of Arkell vs Pressdram, and to the history of the last 5 years. The reputation of Parliament has been damaged by MPs and Peers, and the shenanigans they have been up to conceal these activities from the public, specifically not by media or bloggers. Bloggers are better thought of as part of the salt which has helped cause some of the poison to be vomited out of the system; there%u2019s plenty of poison that hasn%u2019t even been touched yet.
If MP%u2019s hadn%u2019t been fiddling and farming their Expenses for decades in contravention of the published rules and with the connivance of the House Authorities, the Speaker and Speaker%u2019s Office, the Fees Office, system, the political parties themselves, and those who set the business agenda for House, then no one would have been able to accuse them of doing it.
Letting bloggers in will %u2013 if anything %u2013 act as a further necessary check. If %u2013 to go all Guido for a moment %u2013 secret expenses farming, fiddling, fraternisation for personal gain, and .. er .. f*cking, become more difficult to hide, then it will be an excellent thing.
Worried about Gossip, Trivia and Mischief
They are also worried about gossip and trivia.
One Commons insider said: %u2018If you have a lobby pass, you can wander anywhere. There will be far more scope for mischief and trivia if you let bloggers in.%u2019
Parker said: %u2018What the Commons authorities are concerned about is that there should be no precedent set that would create a free-for-all. They don%u2019t want to have the House of Commons over-run by bloggers.%u2019
It seems to me that gossip, trivia and mischief have their source in politicians and their staff as much as in the media. I do, however, think that there is an opportunity here for access which is more finely-grained than %u201Cin%u201D or %u201Cout%u201D; I%u2019ll comment on that below.
Opportunities to do things better
I%u2019ve made clear that I think there%u2019s more than a little self-justification going on in the statement from the Commons Authorities. These are my own thoughts about things which may happen next.
Firstly, the ABCe circulation measurement organisation could offer a lower priced product as one way of auditing the %u201Creadership%u201D of blogs. Or perhaps Wikio could do it as a new service, as many of the relevant blogs already run their %u201Cranking%u201D badges.
Secondly, I would not be surprised if a condition of entry to the lobby system is that blogs accept some sort of regulation, perhaps via the Press Complaints Commission.
Thirdly, there is an opportunity here for more %u201Cfine-grained%u201D specialist reporting, which may require changes in access for reporters outside the Lobby. It will be a mistake to limit access to general political bloggers. I would like to see Commons%u2019 Committees, which mirror specialist departments, authorise specialist bloggers to report on particular aspects of Parliament %u2013 for example an academic specialist who writes a blog about landslides should be able to attend to report a debate on earthquakes. The benefits from allowing bloggers proper access to Parliament goes way beyond the Lobby beat; the greatest benefit will be from allowing reporters to reach all the nitty-gritty detail which is not usually reported at all.
Finally, there is a question of resources. It would be a farsighted idea to make small grants available %u2013 perhaps as little as �100 a day or just out of pocket expenses %u2013 to help relevant amateur but knowledgeable bloggers attend Parliament.
Initially, this could be paid for out of monies recovered from repayments of over-claimed Expenses; the small amount of one or two million of repaid Expenses so far would cover 20,000 reporting days at one hundred pounds each.
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Categories: All WW, Breaking News, House Rules for Parliament, Micropolis, Miscellaneous, News - Current Affairs, Parliaments, Political Blogging, Politics
Tags: bloggers, expenses, house of commons, house of lords, mp, parliamentary lobby, pr week, westminster
There'll be a gradualist approach but looks like an important watershed. However, read the full piece for some delicious historical morsels suggesting this is actually how Parliament used to be reported.
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