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From the article, Twitter takes flight in Congress, in Federal Computer Week, the service has facilitated real-time discussion with constituents regarding legislation under consideration and appears to be beginning to influence how elected representatives engage with their constituents. From the article,
The article does point out the risk of these technologies being used purely for political messaging, another way to distribute media releases.Ari Herzog, a political blogger who has been following the use of Twitter in Congress as well, said that he sees Twitter as a way for elected officials to show taxpayers and voters what they are doing.
“Whether the future with the Congress will be in YouTube or in Twitter or in some other technology, I think [those type of technologies] are where it’s going to be,” said Herzog.
In my view this is the risk of any communications medium, and the best equivalent is talkback radio - yes it will be used to communicate political messages, but it will also support communication between public office holders, government agencies and citizens.
Hi Ari,
ReplyDeleteI hope you are correct about the growth of social media use by elected officials.
I've also chatted with Congressman Culberson several times, via Twitter and via an online video tool.
I've not yet managed to encourage him to post a comment on my blog however!
Let me know if you get a response from Obama or Hilary - my experience has been that they primarily use Twitter as a broadcast tool, as do Governor Schwarzenegger and several other US Governors.
I have been interested to see how much information is posted about their movements. It could be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Hey Craig,
ReplyDeleteI was interested to see the inclusion of a twitter feed in Gordon Brown's new website (along with YouTube and Flickr on the fornt page), being utilised both for news broadcasting and as a feedback channel.
It feels like a step forward to me.