I have to say I disagree strongly with Iain Dale’s criticism of the British government’s Media Monitoring Unit for extending their coverage to the blogosphere.
I can only assume Iain was in a particularly grumpy mood when he wrote this post as he’s usually such a strong advocate for the blogosphere and genuinely appears to understand its growing importance within society. As he often rails against the dismissive attitude of some politicians and journalists towards the blogosphere, including his own blog, it would seem self-defeating to criticize the government for actually reading blogs.
I am particularly mystified by this statement:
I do know that about a year ago Conservative Campaign Headquarters added blogs to the Shadow Cabinet daily media monitoring brief. I was rather horrified at the time.
As someone who spends many hours trying to persuade politicians to read political blogs, I find this extremely frustrating. If I supported the Conservative Party, I would be delighted to know blogs are included in CCHQ’s daily media briefing.
Clarence Mitchell, the MMU’s director, explains,:
There’s a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn’t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that.
e-Gov advocate, architect and blogger, Simon Dickson, follows up:
What’s the alternative - ignore the blogosphere? How often do I read posts complaining that the government isn’t listening to ordinary people outside the Westminster Village?
As Iain rightly points out there is a lot of rubbish written online, but amidst the rubbish there is a lot of extremely high quality and influential content. Surely, putting ideological viewpoints aside for one second, it is the job of the government’s MMU to find that high quality and influential content?
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