It is all about Control....
I believe that Molly Chapman Norton's article, "Why Congress Doesn't Blog...And a Few Members Who Do" makes complete sense concerning the apparent lack of interest of current Congressmen and women have towards creating a blog on their Web sites.
In today's world of spin, Congressional offices like to be completely in control of their message and what communications the office circulates to the media and its constituents. I completely agree with the notion that a blog is not seen as a critical component of a Congressional Web site not only because offices do not want their views and positions misunderstood, but also because the Web sites are so behind the times to begin with. Blogging would mean that the office would need to severe a bit of its control and add to their workload further and I am not so sure many Congressional offices would be too conducive to that idea.
Do I think that blogging should be utilized on an officials Web site? To be honest I do not know the right answer. I can see the pros and cons to the question on equal footing. Yes, blogging would be a good way to key into constituents' minds, but a true blog would not filter what anyone would comment on. This means the elected official could be setting themselves up to look badly. Having the ability to see what the voters believe could potentially help an official navigate the political spectrum in the best way for their constituency and it would provide the voters with an easy to use communication forum. On the other hand, the constituency as a whole would not respond or even read the blog, only a few people who are truly interested in the politics would and they would therefore present a skewed vision of the constituency. If someone is not going to pick a newspaper to read an article about some Congressional appeal, they are certainly not going to blog about it.
It is my position that campaigns have a lot to learn from corporate uses of the Internet and officials already elected and in office have a whole lot more to learn than even the campaigners. Blogging is a buzz word that we are all very cognizant of now, but these offices have a lot to catch up on. Congressional offices will eventually find a happy medium where they get the best out of blogging while minimizing their losses, but I think this will definitely take some time to evolve and come to light.
In today's world of spin, Congressional offices like to be completely in control of their message and what communications the office circulates to the media and its constituents. I completely agree with the notion that a blog is not seen as a critical component of a Congressional Web site not only because offices do not want their views and positions misunderstood, but also because the Web sites are so behind the times to begin with. Blogging would mean that the office would need to severe a bit of its control and add to their workload further and I am not so sure many Congressional offices would be too conducive to that idea.
Do I think that blogging should be utilized on an officials Web site? To be honest I do not know the right answer. I can see the pros and cons to the question on equal footing. Yes, blogging would be a good way to key into constituents' minds, but a true blog would not filter what anyone would comment on. This means the elected official could be setting themselves up to look badly. Having the ability to see what the voters believe could potentially help an official navigate the political spectrum in the best way for their constituency and it would provide the voters with an easy to use communication forum. On the other hand, the constituency as a whole would not respond or even read the blog, only a few people who are truly interested in the politics would and they would therefore present a skewed vision of the constituency. If someone is not going to pick a newspaper to read an article about some Congressional appeal, they are certainly not going to blog about it.
It is my position that campaigns have a lot to learn from corporate uses of the Internet and officials already elected and in office have a whole lot more to learn than even the campaigners. Blogging is a buzz word that we are all very cognizant of now, but these offices have a lot to catch up on. Congressional offices will eventually find a happy medium where they get the best out of blogging while minimizing their losses, but I think this will definitely take some time to evolve and come to light.
