Communicating our Political Message
We are close to the next General Election and we have our own Crawley Council by-election in October. The political parties always look for appropriate ways to apply emerging technology to assist with their communication. In practice, the methods that we use are complementary, not least because no single approach will reach everyone.
Some messages put through our internet technology can in theory reach and motivate thousands of people in say Australia and New Zealand. That is impressive but not a lot of good for a local election in Crawley where they have no voting rights, especially if we also miss tens of thousands of our own residents.
Our different means of communication must work together. There is still a very important role for leafleting and canvassing on the doorstep. We have to suppress our temporary frustration that on a typical canvass, the majority can easily go to the ‘Out’ Party. Overriding this feeling is the compelling duty and logic that causes us to want to meet our electorate, to hear their concerns and discuss their issues face-to-face.
Although technology and automation can give us more options, they can be used in a way that denies time for meeting people, for getting out more. I recently had a discussion with a technologist about different campaigning methods and how “in” and “now” they were. He confided that he was hooked in to a four-figure number of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds from the web. I wondered how I would cope with that and everyday life including such basic activities as eating some square meals away from a computer terminal.
The extraordinary growth of social media on the internet has not escaped the attention of the political parties. Politicians approach these media with varying degrees of enthusiasm and trepidation. They are powerful communication outlets but that very power can trip us up. Messaging can be instant meaning that offence or even libel can have that same attribute. Dialogue on these media can be fraught with danger for politicians who need to exercise considerable care and attention with their postings. With email, we often put an initially strident note into a draft folder before sending in case in half an hour, we reflect and see a need to moderate the message.
The latest technology will tend to initially reach more people within a younger age group – the same age group that is less likely to vote. So the political parties need to see this fact as a major challenge and opportunity. There is a real possibility of renewing an interest in politics through emerging communication channels.
At the same time, we need to reach all of our electorate and that still means leafleting, canvassing and actually talking to each other.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
30th September 2009