Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill has been getting a lot of interest in her use of Twitter (microblog, social networking tool, blah blah blah) to keep her constituents informed about what she’s doing. Politico recently named her to their list of the ten most influential Twitterers in DC (right behind Karl Rove).
Missourinet (network owned by Learfield, the company that pays me) reporter Steve Walsh brought up Twitter in a recent interview and the senator spoke wistfully about a day when she can “speak directly to everyone in Missouri,” describing it as “Nirvana.”
It was telling that my friend (and co-worker) Steve set his question up as “nothing at all to do with anything serious.”
Hmm. Should the day come that every elected official can speak directly to every one of the people they represent, without talking to a reporter, things could get serious (for the news media). Don’t get me wrong, we need good reporters like Steve, who can call bullshit on the politicians when necessary. They will always have a role. But it seems to be changing.
And this just in… anyone with access to the Internet can hear directly from Senator McCaskill.
Should the day come? It’s already been here but for decades, not just the past few months.
Twitter is the latest, but before that was the auto-dialer and the political flyer, before that was purchased TV time and before that radio’s “fireside chats”.
Politico’s have always had the ability to talk directly . . . what’s different is that we now have the ability to talk directly back, on the same channel with no filters in the way.
Reporters, these days, are ‘getting it’ that they’re no longer the funnel they once were but instead, media outlets are a conduit. For organizational purposes, politicians communicate through reporters because it’s inefficient to speak with each person individually.
But, in some ways, now that can happen and outlets like Twitter (and blogs that allow comments) enhance the 2-way capability of the conversation.