Labour to consider blogger invites
Read more about: Blogging, Labour Party, Media 
The Labour Party considering inviting political bloggers to its Ard Fheis next year Irishelection.com has learned. A party source has said that while it was too early for the party to finalise its conference plans it was “certainly open to bloggers attending” and was thinking about the issue of invitations.
“We are happy to have attendees from all forms of media at the event, however we can normally only invite people from the mainstream press as we know who they are… but as it stands bloggers are welcome to contact us and make a request if they wish to attend”; said a party representative.
The Labour Party has put increased focus on its online strategy in the run up to the next general election with web-guru Zack Exley last month coming on board to advise the party on its online tactics. Exley gained a name for himself for his work on the Howard Dean and John Kerry Presidential campaigns in the US and most recently for his association with the British Labour party in their 2005 campaign.
Blogs have been seen as an increasingly important aspect of political campaigning in recent years. In the 2004 US Presidential elections both the Democrat and Republican parties used supportive bloggers to spread their respective messages while more neutral American blog sites gave blow-by-blow accounts of the two side’s campaigns and controversies. Earlier this year the UK’s Conservative party announced that it would invite bloggers to its party conference next year as part of its attempts to re-engage the voting public.
Already a number of Labour candidates, TD’s and Councillors maintain blogs including the party’s Deputy Leader and Health Spokesperson Liz McManus and Waterford City Councillor Seamus Ryan. Irish bloggers are also gearing up for the next election with sites like www.irishelection.com launching to create and accommodate news and debate on all the issues next years campaigning brings.
Interesting is there free beer
A sneak preview.
Sorry, thought I could include links:
http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2004/08/09/conblogs.jpg
One hopes before the next party conference that the party (parties)will do some research on Irish political bloggers too and not just wait for people to ask for invites!
This is nuts. Bloggers aren’t a separate group. I know several bloggers who are already members and were at the last conference.
I think he means as accredited journos, or something similar, Jackie.
members who blog is one thing, but general political bloggers is another; and the idea is that bloggers will be treated like the media, as Keith says
When political bloggers become accredited media, something democratic will have ended.
I don’t agree with Keith that they should be accredited, just like I don’t agree that bloggers should become NUJ members etc. etc.
I still think they have a valid place in the political discource and to politicians offer a unique grass-roots outlet for their policies, should they tickle a particular writer etc.
Wow, they’re going to give bloggers doggie treats in the form of invites. Are we worthy? I’d much rather Labour and every other party listen to people whether they be pensioners, craftsmen, yachting folk, bloggers or teens.
To me that reads “We’d rather invite people who will toe the line or whose reactions we can predict when we feed them the usual PR shite.” It also seems to me that they don’t understand what bloggers are. Bloggers are not journalists. We are not paid to write stuff on something we don’t give a damn about.
I’m sure they’d rather not invite someone that listens to one of them up at the podium and instantly blogs “Man that guy is just bullshitting”. Labour and all the rest don’t give a flying fig about people though. What they and the rest care* about are voters. Voters are not the same as people in their eyes. How about Labour actually listens to people and not pander to voters? The fact Labour have to make a conscious decision and change some bloody policy to “invite” bloggers means they are well and truly STILL NOT GETTING IT.
Here’s a free consultation: Enable the Ard Fheis with free net access and free power strips for those with laptops. Don’t invite bloggers, enable people to comment via their own laptops at the event, via forums and via genuine blogs from Labour. If bloggers are there then good, if not that’s fine too. But that’s just a start. Engage with people using all forms of media, not just blogs. Blogs you don’t control and forums you don’t control. Listen to what people care about and have issues about. Forums, blogs, emails and so forth. And for the love of christ stop with the Joan Burton press releases dressed up as blog posts and spamming IrishBlogs.ie.
Do what Dave Winer suggested too. Pick a bunch of people and get them to blog about issues they think are important. People, not voters. And certainly not the party hacks/labour apologists who are so blind that they can’t see their party has things that need to be fixed like every other human created organisation.
*where care is the action of appeasing** those that will grant them power.
** where appeasing means using any and all honest and disonest means to placate someone
Think I might get an invite?
Damien, Has your cynicism left any space for a political point of view?
I don’t want a party to “listen to the people”. Tony Blair has done enormous damage with that approach.
There’s nothing special about political blogging. It’s just old fashioned argument but on-line. Nothing needs to be done about blogging. Let it happen.
There’s nothing special about political blogging. It’s just old fashioned argument but on-line.
I disagree profoundly jackie. Old fashioned argument had little or no capacity to influence political outcomes. Blogging is in two ways different from old-fashioned arguning
1) Its more egalitarian everyone can have a blog and an opinion. engaging with others and coming to a point that is read widely and thought about. It has more reach that old fashioned argument.
2) blogging has the capacity to influence power. That is the strongest point. It should never become power but be a source of the extension of the “argument franchise” more and more “normal people” with “common sense” get heard and their views can influence the mechanisms of power and hte process of politics.
Blogging is no replacement for acitve democratics participation but it is a movement toward the recognition of the majority of people in the process of public reasoning and control of power.
Jackie, Tony Blair listened to pollsters, not people. He played demographics and manipulated public opinion. He was and still is about controling opinion, not letting it flow. If you don’t want a party to listen to people you have plenty of choice in Ireland.
I hope they remember to invite one of their own!!!!
Is this the blogger equivalant of being embedded with an army group in the Gulf? It’s an interesting idea, though I imagine the mainstream journalists would spit the dummy when they see a bunch of bloggers show up in the press room.
Cian,
I tend to agree with you but the effects of which you speak are precisely because the argument takes place on-line.
Damien,
Pollsters make a living from listening to people. There is far too much “letting opinion flow” and not enough argument. My local TDs – especially the Green – belong to the view, “There’s goes the mob. I am their leader. I must follow!”
Jackie,
Pollsters make a living by asking people a predefined set of questions. That’s not listening to people. That’s listening to answers to carefully constructed questions.
Any credible polling works by a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.
For all our preciousness our views and opinions can be coded, classified, and counted.
Labour might as well invite graffitists as bloggers — there’s little difference.
Online discussion fora do allow discussions to be articulated at more length and with more time for reflection than an evening at the pub might.
They also allow recipe swapping.
Damien,
For the love of God, pollsters are employed to find out what people want so that they can be supplied!!! Asking “bent” questions would produce not data but rubbish. It would be commercial suicide for the polling company. It would be commercial disaster for the company paying for the poll to act on such results. Political polling is the commercialisation of politics. The problem is that these days political parties will do nothing but listen and alter policy to suit.