February 2010
4 posts
Cultural Resonance
Death Tax is a big phrase to throw around. Regardless of whether or not a tax equivalent to the scale being talked about is planned, it’s the message that’s important not the details.
It’s an American idea really, it pops up time and again in political textbooks as an example of how to effectively name legislation in order to galvanise support or opposition. Attach a snappy...
Election Night
Justice Minister Jack Straw has backed an amendment to make election night counts compulsory lending Government support to the motion and hopefully ensuring that it will pass during a free vote in the House.
So should we really save election night?
Yes. In a world increasingly dominated by the demand for immediacy in news it would be a step backwards to put off a count until the morning after...
Campaign Basics
Saturday was a rather negative look at the online political landscape so today I’m going to talk about some of the basics of campaigning. Some of this might seem rather obvious to you but campaigns, especially inexperienced ones, are capable of committing the most horrific errors.
Elections revolve around two things: mathematics & psychology
1. People want to help you.
Yes my dear...
The Election
Twitter = Trouble
Yes, it does. And as party central offices scramble around trying to realise how to use twitter it is the Tories who have been the first to deem it more trouble than it is worth for their PPCs.
This decision will not have been a hair trigger response, but will have come from a careful study of metrics and the cost/benefit analysis in terms of who the messages reach and...
January 2010
1 post
Evolution
The fireworks surrounding the as-yet unlaunched Apple tablet have got me thinking about just what it could mean for journalism.
Journalism has long had a strangle hold on information by delivering itself via a well defined medium. Paper, radio and television. If you wanted news you had to be a slave to the media on which it was based. Not anymore.
There’s a lot of talk that this device...