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April 17, 2005Stephen Coleman - the so-called 'expert'
I tuned into Radio 4 this morning to hear a short piece during Broadcasting House on the subject of protest voting and weblogs. The 'expert' they wheeled out to speak about this was Professor Stephen Coleman, often touted as a 'Professor of E-democracy'.
He insisted - and not for the first time - that weblogs require a lot of work, and therefore would not be of interest/benefit to most MPs.
This opinion comes from a man who does not own, manage or run a weblog himself.
"Perhaps," I hear you say, "as an academic, he arrived at this judgement via the careful and objective *study* of weblogs."
Well, I now have one big problem with that theory. And it's this...
When questioned about protest voting sites (of which there are about 6 running in this election) he clearly referenced two or three of these sites and one "wanting to keep/retain Blair"...
There is only one site that he could possibly be referring to, and that's BackingBlair.co.uk - or, as Stephen would regard it - BackingBlair.co.uk; because it would appear that he's made this judgement based on the domain name alone.
(author emails Stephen Coleman via coleman AT netcomuk DOT co DOT uk to see what he has to say for himself)
FFS... Did he not even ask himself why protest votes would be necessary to support the leader of the leading party?
UPDATE - Well, what do you know? The email bounced. The man doesn't even have a decent level of accessibility.
RELATED - Independent - Pulling voters into the web of Westminster: Communication is key in politics, but how well do MPs perform on the internet? Kathryn Corrick casts her vote. (Cheers to Peter for the heads-up.)
UPDATE - Stephen Coleman appears to have actually made a blog entry after all. It's one of ten posts, by the looks of things. Boy, no wonder he thinks this blogging lark is such hard work.
Posted by Manic on April 17, 2005 3:21 PM in the category The Political Weblog Movement
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» New Statesman wins 2005 N00b Media Award from Political Weblogs
Allow me to introduce the N00b Media Award. This is a special award to be granted to the individual or body that shows the most ignorant, witless or callous approach to political weblogs or the online community at large. This... [Read More]
Tracked on August 11, 2005 1:02 PM
Comments
Why did they/you decide to call it "Backing Blair"?
I've looked at the posters there too, looking for something to stick on the advertrailers and Tory ads that despoil my neighbourhood, but the posters seem too clever for their own good too. Like a picture of Jack Straw saying "trust the intelligence".
What's the thinking behind all this?
Posted by: Onlyhuman2 at April 18, 2005 11:43 AM
1) This poster should be clear enough for you:
http://www.backingblair.co.uk/images/blair_poster_thumb_white.jpg
2) We wanted to use irony and wit to reach an informed audience (that's our core). Sadly, we did not anticipate the stupidity of some professors.
Posted by: Manic at April 18, 2005 12:29 PM
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