opolitics

Politicians must abandon the old broadcast model of communicating if they are to harness the current high public interest in ‘podcasting’ to increase citizen participation in democracy, a leading academic has warned.

Podcasting, which uses the internet to distribute audio and video content to computers and portable devices such as mp3 music players, could become a significant way for people to become politically engaged, according to Stephen Coleman, Professor of Political Communication at the University of Leeds. But if politicians use it to distribute prepared speeches, the public will turn off, Professor Coleman told E-Government Bulletin.

“Seeing or hearing a politician just deliver a speech isn’t terribly exciting,” he said. “These new technologies only work well if they link the perspective of a politician with those of other people. If it is seen by politicians as another broadcast medium like TV or radio, they will meet with the same indifference,” he said.

Unlike in the US, few high-profile UK politicians have moved to exploit the new technology, although several MPs including Wantage and Didcot Conservative MP Ed Vaizey and Dunbartonshire East Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson are making use of a new political podcasting site ‘Politics on demand’ (http://www.politicsondemand.co.uk) to offer short talks on their work. According to Coleman, Vaizey is also considering offering a more sophisticated service by podcasting his surgeries and public meetings in his constituency.

In the US, some leading politicians such as John Edwards, former running mate to Democrat candidate John Kerry, appear to have grasped how to use the medium to communicate their personality effectively. “John Edwards’s podcast is good. He seems to understand the grassroots, person to person nature of the web pretty well for a national US politician,” leading US-based podcasting guru Brian Russell (http://www.audioactivism.org/) told E-Government Bulletin.

source:E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN - Issue 207, 20 March 2006

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