Wired tells us Hillary Clinton goes after ‘the Facebook generation’ when suggesting the implementation of a govrnment blogging team.
Clinton apparently said:
“We should even have a government blogging team where people in the agencies are constantly telling all of you, the taxpayers, the citizens of America, everything that’s going on so that you have up-to-the-minute information about what your government is doing, so that you too can be informed, and hold the government accountable”
Two things trouble me about the article:
1) The talk of ‘the Facebook generation’
While it may still be true that the average user of services like Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc. is relatively young, we have long ago established that these communities do not appeal exclusively to pimply-faced teens, but cater to a much broader audience. And let us not forget that the users of these services grow older by the nano-second so let’s give the age-ism a rest, eh?
BTW – my dad is one of my most active contacts on flickr, and he turns 60 next years – get my point?
2) The idea of a ‘government blogging team’
While I certainly appreciate the idea of governments using blogs to communicate with citizens, I sincerely believe that the use of blogs should be integrated into the everyday routines and not placed in a team of bloggers whose sole task it is to blog. That brings us a little too close to the mechanisms of the old school PR department. Also, the way Clinton talks about it, the idea seems to be using blogs as a means of providing readers with news updates. If the medium is to make any sense, the emphasis needs to be on conversations with the readers – you know, the fancy two-way type of communications.
But cudos for suggesting it. Let’s see which ideas are realized between elections.
Tweet