Politically Speaking
I rarely take my mind off sex long enough to get political, but when something pushes the right buttons, I’m compelled. I rarely claim to have an opinion, but every now and again something comes along that makes me want to pin my colours to my forehead. This is one such time and occasion.
I’m 24, and have probably (my maths is not that great, and the time period of which we speak involved much vodka) been eligible to vote in two previous elections. I never got the chance to register because I was always out of my voting district over those registration weekends. It never bothered me before, because I never felt compelled to participate in the world around me, there was no reason and I had nothing to lose.
That changed when I had a kid. Now that I have his future to worry about, and the future of his possible offspring, I made a concerted effort to register to vote. How can we complain about the way things are, if we do nothing about them? How can we complain about the way things are, if we say nothing about them? So impassioned was my speech to persuade The Boyfriend to drive me to the local church to register, that he was soon scrabbling for his ID book so he too could register to vote.
So now I am determined to vote, and to use my vote wisely. I know it’s only one vote, but many other wisely cast votes apparently can make a difference. Don’t tell me that the first thing that popped into your head after reading that sentence was ‘Barack Obama’. Good lord. I’d sworn, after having been saturated by so many pro-Obama posts, jokes, emails, shirts, adverts, videos that I would never blog about Obama. But here I am. And you have to marvel at the sheer collective persuasive power of the blogosphere and the complete pervasiveness of Twitter and Facebook into peoples’ lives.
The potential for influence cannot be ignored, not even in South Africa, thus I am not surprised that Helen Zille is reported as saying that the DA plans to engage voters and involve them in their campaigns through social media networking and through interaction on the blogosphere.
Forgive me for being presumptuous in thinking that the words ‘engage’ and ‘interaction’ imply a mutual exchange of ideas and opinions. A two-way flow of intellectual verbiage. Before a political entity makes a declaration that it plans to engage with ‘the blogosphere’ it should make sure it is actually prepared to do so.
Engagement with the blogosphere does not mean attracting them as readers to your site, and expecting them to allow you to bombard them with promises and campaign speeches, and expecting them to it up, and go away and blog about how wonderful your party’s ideas are and the how revolutionary your party is are for using the ‘groundbreaking’ social media networking platform Twitter. No, no.
You might be surprised that bloggers like to question the status quo. Bloggers like to scratch the surface, and see what’s beneath. Bloggers like to interact with the word around them. Seek opinions before they pass judgment, or take a moral standpoint on a certain issues.
Bloggers criticize, but they also offer advice. Rarely will they pick something apart without suggesting a way to put it back together again. This is where their usefulness lies, and those looking to utilize the blogosphere need to realize this. Proper interaction with the blogosphere can be highly useful, but the means in which it is conducted, needs to be to the blogger’s satistfation in order for it to work properly.
Like Walter Pike says it’s about relinquishing control. To make it work, you have to let it work, completely unrestricted and unchecked. Allow the dirty laundry to be aired, the disgruntled complaints to come out, and the problems to be identified. Only once those have been completely dissected, debated upon and discussed on a multitude of platforms can the needs of that portion of voters be identified and catered for. Or at least promises can be made to that effect.
But in order for all of the abovementioned ‘interaction’ and ‘engagement’ can only happen if all channels of communication are open. Also, if an invitation to engage has been put out there, be it a tweet, or a blog post, it’s only polite to respond using the means of communication chosen by the person addressing you. Ignoring them isn’t polite either. As with all different kinds of conversation, the rules differ. Learn the rules, before you engage, suss out a measure of acceptable etiquette, and stick by it. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again ‘engage’ and ‘interaction’ imply exchange. Room is given, of course, for error and slip-ups can be overlooked. Especially if a willingness is shown to reciprocate. Reciprocation means all participating and spectating become better informed, and can make better choices on both sides of the campaign.
So, all political parties looking to ‘engage’ their local blogosphere and gain fame, fortune and link-love need to make sure they’re actually prepared to earn it.
But once you’ve earned it, it can change the world. Which is exactly what we’re trying to do here, aren’t we?
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Very well put!
What I find most interesting is that the DA is learning on their feet. I’ve noticed immediate changes in their style of online debate after the bloggers got a hold of them. Hell they may in fact learn a thing or two about this online world.
Nevertheless I think the most startling thing is that political parties in this country are utilizing social media in order to push a one sided agenda, which manifests as a condescending and arrogant tone online. It’s simply not enough merely to create an online property through which conversation may occur, it’s about recreating the social dynamics which exists in the real word online and allowing anyone and everyone to engage with a particular ideology at the same level. As I said to the DA in my post I respect them for trying, I respect them as a party of thought-leaders but I will not tolerate their naive-elitism.
agreed.
even *they* need to reciprocate.
bucking frilliant post!
it is indeed a two-way street, and i’ll be very interested to see how it progresses. i am registered and i have voted at every given opportunity. i also feel strongly about protecting my knucklehead’s future every possible way i can.