The Buffalo Blog

Obama, McCain and the battle for online reality

There have been some interesting communication developments in the wake of the first McCain-Obama debate on Friday. According to The Independent, just minutes after the debate had finished, the online spin machines were in full motion.

In the first blow, Obama’s backers released a post-event video focusing on McCain’s speech semantics and his failure to use the words "middle-class" or "working people". McCain’s team countered, again within minutes, by releasing information on the number of times Obama agreed with their man during the debate, perhaps to illustrate a perceived lack of independent opinion.

Petty though these tactics and subjects may be, they illustrate some interesting trends in the development of internet debate as a whole:

• The importance of speed

• The changing control of ‘reality’ as a concept

In PR, speed has always been important but never more so in the ‘information age’. Getting a client’s, whether a political candidate or a food company, word out there as soon as possible can avert disaster and create a multitude of great exposure when done properly.

This leads neatly to the control of ‘reality’. While it may sound a little sensationalist, the reality of the world that is not in our direct experience, has always been controlled by the papers, the television and now the internet. We can’t always know things first hand so we accept them as they are shown to us.

The internet, Google and social bookmarking and tagging has changed the dynamics somewhat. This is where speed and skill in online PR, SEO and the like come into play. Whoever can get their word out quickly and skilfully effectively creates ‘reality’ for the readers. The more this content is looked at, linked to, bookmarked, the higher it is ranked by Google and the more enforced it becomes as the accepted reality.

The scary thing is that it doesn’t matter if it is true or not…

But internet users have access to billions of information sources through which they can build a complete picture don’t they? Well yes, but diligence in information gathering has changed to suit our fast-paced, information-rich world. Users may still look at various sources for their information, as they will have done before the internet, but these have been pre-sorted, clipped, edited and indexed by popularity. And there simple isn’t time to take in every   bit of information.

Internet users are now left with the popular view of the world rather than the actual. And the control of this has shifted to anyone savvy enough to take it.

The point of all this I scaremongering musing is firstly, to take everything with a healthy pinch of salt. And secondly as a note to PROs, both in-house and agency, world to take care in what they put out there. It doesn’t take long for reality to take shape on the web and this has profound implications for us all.

“Sous-veillance” turns Big Brother on his head

Silicon reports on the growth of "Sous-veillance" this morning, a growing trend (apparently) in which techno-savvy busybodies can take videos of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and bring the government into line by posting them on YouTube. In a report by the European Information Society Group (Eurim), it laid out its vision of turning ‘Big Brother’ on its head so we can collectively scrutinise those in power with our camera phones.

This is hailed by the report as a major step in increasing citizen engagement but is it actually going to work?

While the report is well intentioned, the technical nous and equipment needed for angry citizens to upload their videos could be prohibitive. The trouble is that the people who do the majority of complaining about public services, and I’m making a sweeping statement here, are likely to be precisely the ones without the knowledge to get these videos online.

It’s also unlikely that the videos are actually going to have any affect on those in power. Unless someone catches Boris Johnson graffitiing a bendy bus, or something similarly sensational, these videos aren’t going to be top of the YouTube charts so won’t be seen and definitely won’t create the required angry mobs needed to start a political movement.

The verdict? This report is well intentioned but "Sous-veillance" is unlikely to take-off unless done on a local and very specific scale.

Lisbon and the Irish brick wall

One waits with baited breath and quiet mirth at the as yet uncertain outcome of the latest challenge to face the Lisbon treaty. I speak of course of Great Wall of Ireland that the treaty has just run into.

While seemingly little could be done to prevent this situation, politicians must have known what was coming and dreaded the outcome. Irish constitution dictates that the Treaty be put to referendum and the result was pretty much assured – a resounding NO.

According to various commentators the country, formerly the poster child for EU membership, has lost something of its economic spark over recent months. This can’t have gone unnoticed by the public who evidently have become a little disillusioned with EU membership and are evidently loathe to hand over any more power to Brussels.

Like a dog with a bone Brussels isn’t going to give up without a fight. However, strategies for overcoming the Irish’s commendably democratic decision aren’t forthcoming. The most credible solution proposed so far is to simply keep on asking. The theory I believe is to appeal to Irish caprice and hope they’ll just change their minds – in the end they’ll have to say yes won’t they?

Freedom for bloggers

This isn’t a blog famous for its cutting edge political commentary and that isn’t going to change today. However, as a fellow blogger and lover of free speech (see previous China blogs) I feel compelled to offer what support a small tech PR blog can to those bloggers who find it less than easy, indeed highly dangerous, to put their thoughts into the blogosphere.

Brought to my attention this morning by the Independent, is the plight of Fouad Al-Farhan, held in a Saudi Arabian jail without charge for over a month for his political blogging about the Saudi Government. Sadly these cases are all too common when you start digging and make you realise how easy we have it over here.

Calls are abound for Bush to do something about these ‘unlawful’ (at least in a British sense) imprisonments on his latest trip to Saudi. Owing to my lack of international political clout the best I can do is issue my support for free speech and maintain the hope, however misplaced, that Bush does something right for once.