Along with three other University of Sunderland students, I was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 last night regarding the recent situation of how the Labour Party is funded. For anyone that doesn’t know, four businessmen gave the Labour Party unpublicised loans totalling £4.5m and were subsequently nominated for peerages by Tony Blair. More here.
We discussed how far politicians are out of touch from the general public and what they should do to get politics in the forefront of people’s (and students’) minds. Being the only PR student (the others students are studying politics) I had my PR hat on. And of course pointed out that politicians need to be upfront, honest and transparent in everything they do.
It was aired at 10pm last night but I was told it will be available via the BBC Radio 4 website today. As of yet, I haven’t found it, but if I do I’ll put a link up. If anyone’s remotely interested that is!
It certainly was a great opportunity for media training, and once again, thanks Philip.
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Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Stuart Bruce
Stephen, I’d like to listen if you find the link. Just one thing it was 12 businessmen and £14 million. You’re right about the “upfront, honest and transparent” but actually most politicians of most parties would agree with you. The problem is how. The reason political parties ’spin’ is that the media do.
A politician can do what you say but the media won’t always report it like that. The other option is going around the traditional media and reaching out to voters directly. But despite the internet (and blogs!) this still takes a whole lot of money (and people) to do.
It’s one thing knowing what you should do and quite another being able to do it.
p.s. Take a look at my http://www.stuartssoapbox.com blog as I’ve just done a piece on young people (15-25) being disengaged from politics.
Stephen
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for the heads up. I have tried to find the link to the BBC interview but with no luck. It’s quite brief anyway.
I’m no expert of course, but the whole situation does look suspicious. Maybe it is the media putting a spin on things but I can’t help feeling there’s been a touch of deceit going on. (My opinion of course)
Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some hard-working, ethical politicians out there who are in it to make the world a better place, but I feel that there is a huge gap (and growing) between the public and the members of parliment.
I live in Tony Blair’s constituancy – about three mile away from his constituancy house – and can remember seeing him quite often prior to being PM. When he was elected as PM I remember there was a feeling that things were going to change for the better (I live in Easington District – one of the lowest areas on the demographic scale) but in fact they’ve got worse. (My opinion again)
Philip Young
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/worldtonight/ and the Listen Again menu for Tuesday.
And don’t believe Stuart about spin! Politicians were spinning well before there was a mass media. But he is right to say that newspapers spin stories – and that their ability to do so does, in my view, make it difficult for politicians to develop ideas, express doubts or present an argument is anything but the brightest white or darkets black.
David Phillips
Our expectations and experience is writ large here. There was every expectation that access to the broad/podcast would be immediately available.
We quite expect to be able to ‘listen again’ or download an MP3. The Bloggersphere has ’spread the word’ and created a wider potential audience.
If the recording is not there, the BBC loose a large part of the value of the broadcast.
The value of broadcasts is only as good as the number of listeners (viewers for TV).
There is a lesson here for the traditional media. The value of your editorial is only as good as the audience size, a large part of that audience can be delibered by the New Media. The marketers don’t get it and will try to splog it, I guess there will be a range of ‘advatorial’ attempts and so forth but the real delivery will be through trusted channels.
Stuart Bruce
Don’t listen to me! The question is what is spin. I’m not 100% sure if I know. Is it always bad? Can it be good? Does it even exist. Where does the term come from (actually I know that one)? I wonder if Philip’s book on ethics will provide any of the answers or more food for thought?