Why do politicians blog?
By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Nov 27th, 2006 • Category: Blogging, Blogs, Journalism, PoliticsEmily Bell, the Guardian’s director of digital content, takes a look at political blogging and viral video in the media sections opinion column today under the heading “separating the bloggers from the tossers”.
Her conclusion is: “No doubt between now and the next election the increase in politicians blogging will be like lemmings falling off a cliff, but a word of advice if I may. Unless you have and inner blogger — don’t bother.”
She castigates David Cameron who never veers into the “realm of conversation”. His posts do not refer to external sources, point to material seen or read, or link to people he’s talked to. “It is a one way diatribe of not-quite policies,” she writes.
There are resonances in Bell’s piece, of the discussion on why newspapers blog. Howard Owens has joined this discussion in his Media Blog and suggests: “All reporters must learn to become good bloggers. If you’re smart enough to be a good reporter, you should be smart enough to figure out how to become a good blogger.”
That argument could equally be applied to politicians but I am with Emily Bell: you need “the inner blogger”.
Andrew Grant-Adamson is Andrew Grant-Adamson is a journalist who now teaches a new generation of writers, subs and editors at the University of Westminster.
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Ah, politicians aren’t that smart, many of them. A lot of people think it take ego to blog. But too much ego can be detrimental to good blogging. There’s no shortage of ego in politics. Thanks for the link, and I should also mention I have a more recent post somewhat related to the notion of politicians blogging.
‘Why do politicians blog?’ asks Wordblog, quoting from Emily Bell’s wry look at politicians jumping on the social media bandwagon in The Guardian’s comment section today. The answer should be obvious: what a wonderful way to converse with the electorate, engage disaffected or
Why do Politicians Blog?
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want this, yet hardly a week goes by without at least one request for a new blog. There’s a process for the proposal of new blogs which, currently, doesn’t capture whether or not our would be bloggers have what the Guardian’s Emily Bell callsone’s “inner blogger”. Without an author who has a “drive to blog”, a blog that looks great on paper ends up lacking in substance and appears soulless. [IMG evans_adie.png]Many people don’t have an inner blogger and not every BBC presenter, reporter, producer or editor
[...] not expecting this to happen. And even if it did it would be a minor miracle if Ed had the kind of “inner blogger” that would make for a good [...]