This one will go down as one of the great political blunders in Irish political history. Well maybe not but for bloggers this one ranks somewhere between comical and flagrantly dishonest. Having a brass neck, that most salient of political traits, may have served Fianna Fail well in times past when dealing with print media but the Web has introduced a whole new brand of political writer unfettered by commercial concerns or a management structure to report to.
Having been well tapped in the last US presidential election new media, in the form of blogging, Twitter feeds and YouTube channels became a hallmark of both the Obama campaign but also that of fringe Republican candidate Ron Paul. The latter’s chances of securing a ticket were minute at the outset but the support of the Web community drew attention to Paul’s libertarian politics and made him a poster boy for Americans frustrated by neoconservatism and an apparently limp-wristed Democratic party. As it turned out the Obama campaign galvanised the American left and won back much of the geek vote (for the record Bob Barr went forward on a libertarian platform), thanks wholely to his willingness to not only make use of new media but hail it as an integral part of the communicaiton process between government and electorate. It worked a treat so what political party would want to be without that kind of low-cost, high-impact strategy? And who better to explain it that Obama’s new media guru Joe Rospars?
Now the dust has settled on last week’s event we can sit down and have a look at just how much damage Fianna Fail did to themselves once it was revelaed the Rospars visit was also a hook to annouce the softlaunch of the new party website.
Something of a PR disaster Rospars’ visit, informative as it was, became completely overshadowed by Fianna Fail’s strategy of sending out two distinct invitations: one, unbranded, to a select number of bloggers and another, branded, to the Party faithful. Once the real reason for Rospars visit, i.e. to endorse FF’s Web strategy became apparent response was swift with Twitter abuzz with messages crying foul, blog posts expressing dissatisfaction in a slightly longer form and, eventually, broadcast media getting their hands on the story. All of a sudden the website went from being a hub of Party activity to a much-maligned exercise in hubris.
So where does FF stand after this not-so-helpful flirtation with the vagaries of new media and the Blogosphere? Actually pretty much where it began. With a Government approval rating of 10% it would take something of a concerted effort well beyond that of a bungled site launch to damage the senior partner. As an attempt to make nice with a small but vocal group of armchair pundits, savvy journos and casual voters we have an example of old school ineptitude the public tired of long ago. If the medium is the message, this one fell flat on its face.
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers