Image by Premshree Pillai via Flickr
With a great deal of fascination I watched, and lightly participated in, a Twitter-driven debate between many of the mayoral candidates in Calgary. The event, called Twibate Tuesday, brought together most of the candidates into a virtual room (Twitter) where roughly every ten minutes a new question was asked by the moderator, Calgary Politics. I love the concept as it provided potential for citizen interaction.
Twitter is often compared to a cocktail party; loud, noisy, plenty of side conversations…. The debate was much the same. Great questions were asked by the moderator, and by the participants, and by the crowd, but it was easy to get lost.
So, how could this be made better? Here are a few thoughts, let me know what you think:
- Crowdsource the Twibate questions ahead of the debate. Through platforms like Bubbleideas (yes, I do sell this solution) you can bring all interested parties together to generate the right questions.
- Moderators can either pre-define questions or accept idea questions from citizens.
- Citizens vote and comment on questions, enabling those running the debate to pick the questions people most care about.
- Use a Facebook page for the debate. Keeping the debate between the debaters is critical. Too often it was unclear which questions were being answered and unclear if every candidate answered each question.
- Use Twitter as the debate back channel. Citizens should be free to comment and interact with the moderator and candidates throughout the debate. However, it is important that this interaction does not confuse citizens reading the responses.
When the debate is completed the entire Twitter stream should be posted to the Facebook page. Citizens who missed the debate would be able to view both streams to get a complete view, one clean and crisp, one with all the noise of the cocktail party.
How would you approach a debate using new media options? Would you use other approaches?
John
September 22, 2010 at 10:49 am
[...] Read the original: Is social media a good platform for political debate? « The Lab is … [...]
September 22, 2010 at 8:22 am
[...] The rest is here: Is social media a good platform for political debate? « The Lab is … [...]
September 21, 2010 at 1:28 pm
I guess I get confused by the use of the word ‘platform’, as it can mean so many different things from the techie to the stance of a politician. But I think what you are talking about in this blog is bringing people together for a certain event and tweeting during the timeframe of the event, as well as gathering questions prior to the event. I’m not against this, but as an apathetic voter, I would not be inclined to watch a television debate, much less (supposing I am a twitter newbie) spend the time to figure out how this platform (twitter) actually works.
I also like Marie’s comment, “Social media is by nature about little bits of info, and policy deserves more of a thoughtful, drawn-out platform.” As a person who has worked with talking heads for many years, all we’ve done with twitter is shorten our soundbite to 140 characters. I agree that policy deserves more than that.
But what I’ve been seeing with twitter is that it is simply a sharing site for news stories. I follow a few people who add comedy to my life, but as far as political discourse, I’ve gotten nil. This, of course, could be my fault on the platform, since I’ve shifted away from branding myself as a company, and use it more as a sound off.
And like the cocktail party, you’re spot on, because its very easy to not know who’s talking and who should be paid attention to. It also makes it much easier for politicians to duck the tough questions and instead pick up the one that toes the party line. It reminds me of when W hired fake journalists to ask him soft questions during Whitehouse briefings (I know, an old example, but a good case study in how to manipulate the message).
At this point, Twitter leaves a good deal of the people out who would otherwise have good discourse.
September 20, 2010 at 9:34 pm
I would say it’s a good platform for linking to other channels of communication that help people make up their minds on an issue or a candidate. However, I once posted a vaguely political story on healthcare on my Facebook page and ignited a war of words between two relatives – most uncomfortable. Maybe YouTube could be a platform because that allows for a bit more content, but I don’t think people would follow it if they had to click on multiple videos. I quite enjoy Bloggingheads TV – but frankly, I’ve never sat through an entire segment because they’re an hour long. Social media is by nature about little bits of info, and policy deserves more of a thoughtful, drawn-out platform.
September 20, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Great feedback Marie, thank you.
September 20, 2010 at 12:09 pm
There’s just something lost in an online debate. I think this is better left to the old fashioned face to face. Remember that emotion, tone, intonation etc cannot be conveyed in an online forum. At least a blog is understandably just your opinion
September 20, 2010 at 8:28 am
[...] Is social media a good platform for political debate? « The Lab is … [...]
September 19, 2010 at 4:02 pm
[...] Is social media a good platform for political debate? [...]