There is a Medium out there (called a blog), which is free (in its moderately professional version, it requires 20 euros a year to register one's domain name and link it to the page one has made - how much has the average candidate already paid to have a good or bad page designed for him, which is renewed when is being updated, just with press releases and videos from his TV appearances?), and that anyone can own.
Its scope is limited only by the number of people who do not have access to it, it can defy any attempt of censorship, shrinking or counterfeiting, and it gives infinite possibilities for expression, multiplication of resonance, targeting, interactivity and so on.
It is said to be a blog and the vast majority of Greek politicians (and the majority of politicians globally, unfortunately, though not overwhelming out there) do not use it.
Of course, many write articles in printed media and on sites that give them the useful step to do so. Too many - most - are active, even by proxy, on the most popular social media. Many also have websites that they may have registered in their minds as blogs, but which host nothing original, nothing that the average person can read in the course of an average day and draw a conclusion about who the candidate is. MP behind the (wooden) words and why he deserves to be in politics.
Few statesmen, in other words, have begun the process of setting up a page online where they will upload things they have written, or even thought, themselves, especially for those who begin the process of watching and reading them - and those those who have done so are, primarily, those who had this or a similar page before becoming a politician.
Few are the ones who use the Internet to use the Internet as a medium and not simply as a means of relaying the appearances they do elsewhere (in other media and on real platforms).
And it is a pity.
First of all, it is a shame for them.
Posts vs. spots
Catherine Sanderson, elected by the local government of Amherst, USA, and very active in the field of education, blog 2008 to inform voters about what its team did and get feedback. Within two years, that little blog had arrived at 10.000 for unique visitors a month, and Sanderson was the target of complaints by competitors that her blog displaced a disproportionately high proportion of the world's attention. "It's 100% true," she says. "But if they want more attention, let's make their own blogs. Anyone can do it. "
Do you hear? Caution.
Attention is not something won one month before the election.
Attention is no longer something that can be tamed with windows screaming, television spots on clichés and one-off articles on what clichés have gone.
Attention (and trust) is built over time as you give people a reason to watch you.
As you explain what you think, without waiting for direct consideration.
As long as you offer them useful content and elementary pleasure reading.
As you gather and put on top of each other, blocks that prove that you have a coherent thought, a vision and a level of honesty, aesthetics and dignity that secure the right to ask for a vote, a role in the community.
All this, a blog gives you the power to do it.
If, of course, you give him time and energy too.
And it is a shame also for us
Now, I suppose the shortage of time would be the most frequent and as the justification given by the candidates in these elections should be asked if one asked them why they did not have one blog. And although I have never been a candi- date, I realize that their program is really overloaded at this time.
And also, yes, writing is not an easy job.
It takes time and effort.
And the ability to think and put into order what you write.
So, mental assembly.
And time management skills.
And ability to express. And communication.
And humor.
And transparency, of course.
And respect for those who are waiting to know your opinions.
And some self-discipline, which becomes very necessary when you fight with the words, because from the writing platform, your office, you do not hear any kind of applause to reward you, like the square's platform or even the quieter.
And what worries me is that all these features (I would like to) expect from our politicians. But they refuse to write systematically.
I'm not saying now, on Sunday's turkey.
Wish they had written last year. Or three months ago. Let them write regularly as long as they work regularly for the vision they (say) have. Let them record their opinions and battles, without writing skill, without text-sheets, without even uploading the posts to the platform with their hands (let others do the work, as a break from tweets). Wish they had made a stock of their program and ideas, something I could search and find (on social media, you know, one can't search to find much, let alone programs and ideas. In social media, words have life time smaller από το χρόνο που χρειάζεται ο μέσος άνθρωπος για να γυρίσει home of with the metro. Social media is a channel to publicize the valuable things one has in one's store. Programs, you know, are not written in tweets. Everyone's shop for their most valuable asset is their blog).
There are certainly issues.
ΥΓ. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad he blinked for a while, 2008, but then stopped. Completely.
They do in France Scientific studies for the language their politicians use on their blogs.
The Guardian has done in. for the most popular blogs of British politicians.
