Governing by Spin, Blag, & Blog
Deconstructing the way government leverages new media and research in the democratic process
On 22 May, ESOMAR hosted a media roundtable event –– with panellists drawn from the political new media and research arena. These luminaries discussed how government and political parties use new media, social networking and polling/market research to communicate with constituencies, engage the public, increase democratic processes, and tailor and deliver public services.
The London event comes on the tail of a recent a Democracy Online roundtable also hosted by ESOMAR in Paris before the presidential elections. This event focused on how to measure the influence online public opinion has on political parties, politicians and policy.
Sharing Insights
Director General of ESOMAR Veronique Jeannin opened the session with welcoming comments about ESOMAR and a brief introduction to the morning’s programme. “We decided to host this roundtable, about how Government uses or misuses new media and research as part of our ongoing commitment to our members to increase universal understanding of the important role research plays in all aspects of business, politics, and society.”
ESOMAR has been developing debate and discussion platforms under Veronique’s innovative direction for the past 10 months, drawing upon key opinion leaders from around the world, bringing their expert views and insights about societal issues into discussions about how research is integral to supporting business and political decision making processes.
The Panel
The panellists included two current new media pioneering Members of Parliament (MP) - Steve Webb and John Penrose; a political activist and leading political publisher – John Boyd; a special political advisor – Rohan Silva; a new media consultant and commentator – Jon Leach; and, a world-renown researcher/pollster – Johnny Heald.
The Roundtable
The moderator Peter Kellner, president YouGov, suggested a couple of broad questions for the panellists and audience to consider during the session. He said that he’s become aware over the last few years how the nature of political conversation has changed, and seems to have escaped from the old monopolies of the political party leaderships, and the big national media. “Now, anybody can join in, anybody can setup a website, so the question is, or one question is, is this more democratic, or is it merely more anarchic? How does the ordinary citizen know where quality control lies? How can they distinguish between reason and ranting? How should our politicians and our political parties, our political institutions respond…?”
Out of these questions, and those posed to panellists by the audience, five themes emerged about how the internet:
- Allows elected representatives and civil servants to be where their constituents are located. Read more.
- Makes politics, governments, policy making transparent. Read more.
- Encourages collaboration. Read more.
- Improve the quality of information and content. Read more.
- Provides information to policy makers. Read more.
Peter Kellner closed the programme by asking each panellist to make a comment about what learnings they have from the programme.
KEEP ME INFORMED |