The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Politics can be a dirty business, as IÕm sure any of our local, provincial, or national representatives would be willing to tell you. Mud gets slung around quite often as peopleÕs character are defamed, rumours are spread, and the truth sometimes has a difficult time filtering through. Just as often as not, this isnÕt even the fault of the people we have elected to serve us, but it is our own fault as we spread our own thoughts around to those we are surrounded by. Things are even getting worse now. Every political party and individual candidate knows that it is extremely difficult to connect with people. While going door-to-door has a long history, many people are busy or cynical and often just want to be left alone. So to get the message to us, candidates are having to go the extra mile. Blogs, YouTube channels, and Facebook accounts are becoming more and more important as candidates try to reach out and connect. This is especially important for a younger audience. The upcoming U.S. presidential election is pushing the edges of on-the-scene and moment-by-moment reporting. Each of the candidates has a full slate of press people following them. The candidates speak every time their plane sets down. The press write and report. But in the meantime, all of the reporters have Twitter accounts and speculate on every move, flight delay, food stopover, and hair do. The candidateÕs team of handlers spin everything they say out into press releases and blog posts, running to upload clips each day to YouTube showing where their candidate has been and what they had to say. On top of this, once a candidate posts something online, the general public is free to post commentary on their own blogs, or leave comments for the candidates on their blogs or on YouTube. It gets complicated fast and the truth is often hard to find behind all of the mounds of information released. Thankfully Canadian politics hasnÕt gotten quite this bad yet; but with a federal election constantly looming, it would not surprise me a bit to see things moving in the same direction. Some parties are embracing the model of being able to discuss things anywhere with anyone. Some of the parties host full discussion boards and have social networking sites available where constituents can ask questions, post their thoughts about campaign promises and priorities, and help make policy decisions. Other parties are far less organized at the grassroots level and leave their constituents to simply act as passive viewers who can access all of this news, but not comment or contribute to it. Over time, as the people who are now teenagers grow into voting age, what will they expect of their politicians? When you grow up with Myspace and Facebook, with a constant stream of instant messages rolling into your computer and cell phone, and where you fully expect to be able to make your voice heard through posting your thoughts, ideas and comments online for others to read; being locked out of all of the debates and treated like your ideas have no value will not get you far as a politician anymore. Welcome to a new age. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
