Are we just blowing up the bubble a little bit?

Elections force communication

No EU institution is close to the basic definition of a party system from Schumpeter, composed of 4 main elements of the role of political parties:Parties present programmesVoters make an informed choice between competing partiesThe successful party puts its programme into practiceThe governing party judged on its successes at the next election

Adapted from Schumpeter, J.A. [1943] (1976), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 5th Edition, London, Allen & Unwin, quoted in Judge, D. & Earnshaw, D.,The European Parliament

The Institutions

Commission Political futures do not depend on communication –

indeed quite the contrary?

Parliament Second order national elections, often closed lists

Council / Member States If the EU is a success, incentive to present that as a

national success

2

Why blog?What is a blog?

What makes a good blog?

200 million blogs worldwide

Feels hard these days

Creation of hybrid media organisations

I?Whoam

Private-Personal-Professional Continuum

Drugs

Drink

Baby photos

Political statements3rd person

work statements1st person work

statements

Blogging

• Within your regular CMS

• Self-installed WordPress (wordpress.org)

• Free services (wordpress.com, blogger.com)

• Simpler still (tumblr.com, livejournal.com)

Audience(s)

• Who is your audience?

• On the FutureLab blog? On your own blog?

Headings

• Not the same as a newspaper headline

• 110 character nirvana

• Prioritise information over amusement

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/business

Inverted pyramid

The Lead

The Body

The Tail

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

Argument, Controversy, Story, Issue

Extra interesting and related items, context

Styles of writing (alternative)

• Problem – Cause – Solution

• Questions and answers? (and in a blog do you even need to give the answers?

Length

• Too long is always too long

• Anything from a paragraph to an essay is OK

• Make sure paragraphs are short (BBC website example)

Links

• An asset – for understanding, and boosting readership

• “You’ve done your research!”

• A distraction?

• A blog entry must be able to stand on its own and make sense to a knowledgeable reader without recourse to links

Images

• Can improve presentation of a blog entry, break up text

• Pay attention to sourcing, and Creative Commons License rules

Dealing with comments

Promotion of blog entriesin social media

Serve up the information where your audience is

Don’t make your audiencecome to your platform

Blog / Website

??

I?Whoam

Separate person / organisation

All accountsthe same

1 billion

88% of people aware of its existence (USA)

Average user has 130 friends

500+ million accounts, 200 million users, 10 million in UK

87% of people aware of its existence (USA)

5% of accounts produce 75% tweets

500+m users, 235m active, 135m using full functions

Hangouts a unique feature

175 million accounts

60 million USA, 9 million UK, 3 million Netherlands

Creative Commons ImagesEthernet Cables http://www.flickr.com/photos/skreuzer/508996746/ Globe http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/134974908/ Barbecue http://www.flickr.com/photos/gepat/3492166622/ Covers Face / *Zara http://www.flickr.com/photos/zarajay/3546080427/Margot Wallström http://www.flickr.com/photos/45241802@N07/4919573725/ Bubble http://www.flickr.com/photos/stansich/134366701/ Barroso http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisboncouncil/8639784277/