Politics, Politicians and the Internet
October 5th, 2006I’m just come off the Shaun Doherty show on Highland Radio, where I was discussing this weekend’s “Blogging The Irish Election” conference which takes place in the Digital Hub in Dublin. You can listen to the interview at the bottom of this post.
The Internet is developing in Ireland all the time, with more and more people getting connected every week. People are now accustomed to using the net as the first source for much of their news and information, and the fast-moving world of politics is no different to other fields such as estate and travel agency. For example, this week’s speech by Bertie Ahern in the Dail, which was broadcast live on the net, provided the largest ever spike in Internet traffic in Ireland.
If you’re new to looking for politics on the web, a great place to start is IrishElection.com. All the political parties have their own websites, and many TDs and Senators have websites which can be found through Google.
I try to do a few different things with this website. First, I’m trying to get as much information about local things in Letterkenny online as possible. This site has information about local sporting groups, schools, business and employment issues, and developments within the council. Second, I try to use it as a way to connect people with council services such as Planning and Voter Registration. Third, I try to highlight local developments online, such as the websites for the Fleadh or local schools. Finally, I use the site to discuss issues which have been controversial, to put my own views forward while allowing others to add their views.
Every article on this site allows visitors to post their own comments direct onto the page. You can say whatever you want; comments are not moderated and I see them at the same time everyone else does. Yes, that means people can say whatever they want about me online. So far, there have only been a handful directly negative comments, and they are all still online. I haven’t had any issues with profanity in comments in over a year of operating this site.
In the future we will see more and more politicians and public representatives using the Internet like this. The US and the UK have led the way so far, and Ireland is developing as our infrastructure develops. Yes, our broadband infrastructure does lag behind, and yes it is the Government’s fault (for good discussion of this topic, see Damien Mulley’s website). As things improve, we’ll see more people using the net, and voters demanding that their politicians are accesible online.
As with every article on this site, if you have something to say, you can add it in the comments.
Click the “Play” button above to listen to my interview with Shaun Doherty on Highland Radio earlier today.
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2 Responses to “Politics, Politicians and the Internet”
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October 13th, 2006 at 12:14 am
Good interview Damien and neat tool. I wasn’t aware of this until I saw it on your site. Keep on Blogging!!
October 13th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Thanks Seamus. It’s the first time I’ve used it, I find it quite good. It was very easy to get the interview online, once I had the mp3 file saved. I used Audio Hijack on the Mac to get the file, and made an mp3 with iTunes.
Good luck with the new piece on Monday!