Given the irrefutable wisdom of the political pundits that this general election will see the imposition arrival of the digital campaign complete with podcasts and whatnot, a quick trip around the Welsh party websites is insightful – up to a point.
The right-on Labour site carries the obligatory icons for twitter and has a fairly active Facebook page, despite a lack of distinctive material, whilst the Conservatives seem to be strangely less socially networkable given their leader’s rep in this particular field. They even appear reluctant to reveal the names of their candidates.
Plaid Cymru do at least list their candidates although there is not much else on their 2010 election page which presumably means that their big digital idea remains Bloggers for Plaid. Surprisingly, and it may have something to do with the formatting problems on their main site, the Lib Dems have not yet lived up to the expectations that they are the most effective users of networking-type political messaging, although this may change in coming weeks.
Someone wrote month or so ago that this election will not be won on the websites – in gleeful defiance of all-party experience gained in the US presidential elections. Maybe so, but UK elections have been lost over a lot less. Whilst it remains to be seen if digital politics for the punters – as opposed to kind delivered to the press – actually has a place in the world of mainstream messaging, the possibility that it is as pivotal as some would like to believe means that some parties definitely have to raise the bar as this election campaign gets itself online.
1 Comments:
For myself, I'm glad that the Welsh parties have not embraced techno-babble as a political communication medium.
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