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Newspaper Articles: Dublin Bay Ciarán
Cuffe TD
Fine art of blogging and knocking on doors, Irish Times Saturday 7th of
October, Ciarán Cuffe
Communication is at the heart of politics. As new ways of communicating emerge,
politicians must embrace them if they are to remain close to their electorate.
Back in the late 1980s when a group of us decided to fight City Hall we took to
the streets. We used megaphones, leaflets and the first fax machines to
communicate our concerns. Cheap photocopying also allowed us to copy hundreds of
flyers that we delivered by hand.
By 1997 most political parties had websites but they were fairly static affairs.
When I ran for Dáil Éireann in Dún Laoghaire in 2002, I used an e-mail programme
called Netscape Messenger and accidentally discovered a website programme,
Netscape Communicator, that was included as part of the package.
That allowed me to develop my own space on the web. I could then tell more
people about the Green Party's policies and about my ideas for Dún Laoghaire.
I also posted details on where I intended canvassing each evening, and my
friends and volunteers could find out where we would be meeting in advance, so
it saved on phone-calls. My website expanded over the years, and I set up sister
sites for the civic forum on climate change that Eamon Ryan and I hosted last
December, (ClimateChangeIreland.org)
and a conference that I held to discuss Dublin Bay (DublinBayFutures.org)
last spring. Being a Green I was able to recycle the former site when the Green
Party hosted a screening of Al Gores's film An Inconvenient Truth recently.
Two years ago I started my own blog,
CuffeStreet. A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and
displayed in a reverse chronological order.
Essentially it's an online diary, where you can post pictures, words and video
or audio files. Anything goes, as long as it's electronic information. Readers
can usually submit their comments providing valuable feedback on your postings.
A blog allows you to break away from the narrow confines of a press release, or
a press conference in Buswell's Hotel. In the blogosphere, people expect less
formality, and more emotion. It's a tu rather than vous world.
I started out using Microsoft Frontpage, the same programme that I run my
websites with, but quickly switched to Blogger, a weblog publishing system owned
by Google. I always try and include a photo with the posting, as it draws the
reader into the story. A blog posting makes it easier to give the human side,
from family recollections on the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising to the
Afghani hunger strike in St Patrick's Cathedral last May.
My colleagues Dan Boyle and John Gormley are now blogging regularly. Cllr Damien
Blake from Donegal blogged his way through his year as Mayor of Letterkenny and
at the age of 25 is one of the youngest councillors that blogs.
In the United States, political bloggers often break the news. Markos Zúniga, an
immigrant from El Salvador runs
www.dailykos.com, a
blog that dissects the issues of the day from a liberal perspective. Here in
Ireland Richard Waghorne promotes market-based solutions on
siciliannotes.blogspot.com and recently joined an Irish daily as political
correspondent. Richard Delevan's
sicNotes
describes his musings as "a straight shot of socio-political blog with a surreal
chaser, from a stray Yank in Ireland", and also writes for the print media.
Some blogs such as
tuppenceworth.ie are collaborative efforts, allowing a handful of columnists
their own input. Interviews tend to be more candid in the blogosphere and I was
chuffed when United Islander asked me for my views on issues of the day.
The Taoiseach's recent problems over payments have been dissected in detail on
blogs as each nugget of knowledge came to light. Sarah Carey in her
GUBU blog
discussed his tears last week during that television interview. Simon on Dossing
Times undertook some rapid detective work on Bertie's donors. It's always useful
when others do the Googling for you! The
IrishElection
site is a compendium of Irish political blog postings and is less partisan than
Politics.ie.
A new generation is even finding blogging a bit old-fashioned. Young adults are
using Bebo and
MySpace to talk to
the world. These sites provide a template where you can upload songs and images
and provide comment boxes and scribble pads for users and viewers. The
Youtube site allows
anyone to post videos, and no doubt will be watched for the best and worst of
party political broadcasts. Of course, knocking on doors is still at the heart
of political campaigning. According to recent research, personal acquaintance
with the candidate is the most important determinant of party choice, along with
the family's political background. That study even has its own blog on
Irishelectionstudy.blogspot.com. I'll be blogging the election, whenever it
happens, but I'm already knocking on doors!
Ciarán Cuffe is a Green Party TD for Dún Laoghaire. His blog may be read at
www.CuffeStreet.blogspot.com. The Blogging the Election conference takes place
in the Digital Hub in Dublin today; details on www.irishelection.com
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