Iain Dale - political blogger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIain Dale \u00a0(pictured left) believes that the internet will impact individual MPs (mostly through revealing things they don’t want revealed I suspect) but that the overall ‘systemic’ effect of the internet will be small.<\/p>\n
He agrees that the next General Election will be the first where mobile phones and social media will really begin to play a part and where bloggers will cause changes in the news cycle:<\/p>\n
“We get more hits every day than all the 3 main parties put together”<\/em><\/p>\nHe said referring to the traffic generated by his blog and by Guido Fawkes’.<\/p>\n
The problem is the main parties are in ‘Broadcast Mode’ and that given British politics is driven by ‘controlling the message’ the level of interactivity of social media is a challenge. \u00a0As Matthew Macgregor said “The internet is a tactic not a strategy” and that it lowers the barriers to communication (especially inbound to the Party) but how real is the commitment to ‘openness and transparency’. \u00a0The reaction of the media to policy discussions driven by social media will, Matthew believes, be instructive; will the shutters come down once the media starts talking about ‘splits’.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing to click on other than ‘Unsubscribe'” – Matthew Macgregor<\/h3>\n Alex Smith believes that “The Internet will play a crucial role in the next election” – he mentions viral video and the possibility of debate being shaped by the internet. \u00a0He argues that the internet has “already effectively removed one of the Prime Minister’s closest political aides” and that the next election will to some extent be driven by stories that will “break on the web”. \u00a0Alex believes that Paul and Iain have a huge impact on the media cycle and thinks that this will be an important factor. \u00a0All the panelists agreed that the Internet strategies of the main parties were poor at best.<\/p>\n
Boulton’s shock hashtag<\/em> confession<\/h3>\nAt one point when talking about social media and the internet Adam Boulton said he didn’t know what a hashtag was (and I don’t think he was joking!) and references to the internet seemed to feel like references to some kind of monolithic bloc<\/em>. \u00a0Alex picked up the point that realtime interaction driven by things like Twitter might be important. \u00a0Adam seemed to think that a Sky news team would always be faster on the ground.<\/p>\nThe next Boo starts with the voices of Alex Smith (interesting references to Alan Johnson) and then Iain Dale. \u00a0I round off with a few thoughts.The next Boo has ‘reportage’ – skip it if you feel you have enough of a flavour from the text above.Reflections and implications<\/h2>\n The format worked well with a fairly formal panel session followed by various panelists joining tables and moving between courses. \u00a0The informal part of the event was really good – we had Iain Dale and Alex Smith and the comments and discussion were very engaging.<\/p>\n
The event would have been improved by a more discursive (and less ‘Question Time’) approach by the chair. \u00a0Also, having a chair who seemed quite cheerful to admit that he didn’t ‘get’ the internet seems odd – but then presumably Adam ‘Hashtag’ Boulton was a draw for the ‘punters’ (especially the non-geeks)! \u00a0All in all though a minor criticism.<\/p>\n
There were two main things I took away to think about:<\/p>\n
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