The power of the internet!

THE much heralded and much damned interweb has been a boon for and the bane of politicians.

As the evidence from the US proved, a well run online campaign can lead to electoral victory.

But when the political chips are stacked against a politician, or that politician is mired in a ‘scandal’ the world wide web becomes a voracious beast, sucking up rumour and innuendo; a place where leaks can be contrived or accidental.

The name of Iris Robinson’s alleged teenage lover was online well before Spotlight aired, and mainstream media stories are trailed before the prints roll.

All this heralds the dawn of a new age for politics in Northern Ireland: in previous years a spin doctor had only political correspondents and the corridor gossip of Stormont to contend with.

Now they have to deal with the great unwashed even when there’s no election afoot!

Which means that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of people who can freely express their views and opinions at all hours of the day; people who can pass on stories within seconds; and people who can spread allegations before lawyers have woken up.

While the risk of these allegations finding their way into court always exists, the damage to a politician can be extensive before the courts or mainstream media have considered the story.

So, we may have dawning upon us the age when a spin doctor’s job is to co-ordinate responses, monitor blogs and forums and generally make sure his party masters have a strategic presence and plan for the world wide web.

Look forward to advertisements reading “communications officer required; must be a political anorak and a web geek”.

So here we are once more…

SUMMER’S final fling is upon us; the last few weeks to scrape together to get the children new school clothes, wonder how to pay the holiday credit card bill, and yawn at what is now becoming the traditional end of August Parades’ Commission row.

But as this is a new media age we live in, campaigning for and against parades has moved into cyberspace.

The planned Rasharkin parade by the loyal orders this weekend has been labelled contentious and a Parades’ Commission ruling to allow it has been both criticised and welcomed (depending on which of the proverbial sides you may or may not be on).

But there have been extensive tweets from a Twitter on the issue. Sinn Féin MLA, Daithí McKay has as of Friday morning posted 12 Tweets on the parade.

From these Tweets we learn that Daithí is generally opposed to the Parades’ Commission determination, and has given interviews to BBC Radio Ulster, Radio Foyle, UTV and U105 on the matter.

He has also attended a meeting of the Resident’s Association, Tweeted on the ‘anger’ of residents and the fact that a DUP councillor briefly attended the meeting.

The new wave of interactive politicians isn’t quite upon us yet, but the first wave is riding high on the ability to directly offer us their opinions and wisdom without the media filter…but what are we to make of the fact that Daithí is a follower on Twitter of the DUP, éirgrí, the SDLP, the UUP and DUP MLA Michelle McIlveen.

By contrast, the PUP’s Dawn Purvis Tweeted on Friday about how good the Woodstock R&B festival has been!