Peers go Web 2.0 – Lords help us!

By Tom Kirkham

When I saw the headline ‘House of Lords reaching out to young with YouTube', images of Peers breakdancing, knocking back absinthe and playing air guitar to Sweet Child O’ Mine flashed through my mind.
 
Imagine my disappointment then on finding that it was actually about our second chamber’s decision to embrace ‘the internet’ in a bid to shake off apparently outdated stereotypes and provide engaging, thought provoking content for the youth of today.
 
The news seems to typify the now commonplace notion that if your organisation feels out of touch with the younger generation, starting a blog or posting an online video is a sure-fire way to win them back.  It implies that, in an era of increasing political disaffection in the UK, the Lords' lack of youth appeal is nothing to do with the fact that it’s an archaic, unelected body composed mainly of slumbering landed gentry. On the contrary, it's because it isn't on YouTube!
 
I don't wish to slate the actual videos that Parliament has made available - when I typed 'House Of Lords' into YouTube I found the ensuing content both compelling and hilarious.  But I do think the prevailing attitude that, invariably, youth = Web 2.0, is pretty patronising, and serves only to reinforce the fact that yes, these organisations are completely out of touch!
 
Generally speaking, there’s already a massive gulf between the way young people are perceived, and the way they actually are.  Simply using online communications channels to rehash the same tired messages is… well, a phrase involving an old dog and new tricks springs to mind.
 
So I don’t really see the House Of Lords’ move into the world of social media making all that much difference.  After all, surely the young people of today are far too preoccupied with roaming the streets in gangs and stabbing one another to read about the lobbying capabilities of our honourable Peers?

Comments

[Christian]

Tom, I think you're missing the point. I'm guessing that the philosophy behind it is that well, this Interweb thing is great for communication. Parliament is pretty important, so 'they' should communicate what they do. And given that very few people will head over to Westminster and actually start browsing the Hansards, the Internet might well be a good way to do that.

Ok, so what happens in Parliament might be a bit dry and dusty, but it's the way that our country is run, and that's a fairly important thing to communicate.

It does seem that your beef is more with the House of Lords per se, rather than them using modern technology but I did find your argument somewhat facecious. After all, one might apply the same argument to PR - why do you need a blog? Surely PR is all about schmoozing and drinking cocktails with journalists?

[Tom]

Sadly PR is not all about schmoozing and drinking cocktails with journalists, otherwise we almost certainly wouldn't have time to blog in the first place.

I'm not suggesting that blogging is an ineffective means of communication (though dare I say it, it may be slightly over-hyped!). But here at Johnson King, we're not labouring under the delusion that our blog is primarily being read by teenagers. My 'beef' is with the fact that a number of organisations DO seem to see blogging in those terms. The outreach around the House of Lords Web 2.0 launch was almost totally centred around connecting with the younger generation - to the extent that, I felt, it implied the younger generation was incapable of being reached by any other means.

And this of course is nonsense. My point was that, despite what we may read in the news, a great many young people are not in fact permanently connected to the blogosphere, just like a great many young people do not in fact carry knives.

The best way to connect with the younger generation is to actually give them content that has some meaning to them. If you can do that, then I'm not convinced it matters whether you're doing it via broadsheets, online media, blogs or YouTube.

[Christian]

Hi Tom, interesting points. I've had a look at the House of Lords blog, and it doesn't seem to mention anywhere that it's aimed at young people - it simply says that it's aimed at web users.

I think that having a number of ways of communicating is probably a good thing, given the general fragmentation of the media. I'm sure that the Parliamentary press office is still putting out good old fashioned press releases to broadsheets, as well as running twitter feeds - they're simply covering as many bases as possible.

Of course, I completely agree with your point about having relevant content for your audience. On the other hand, I do think that if more people, including young people, can be educated about how the country is run, and their role in how it is run, then this is not a bad thing. And how the country is run is relevant to everyone. If blogging and having YouTube videos will help Parliament to do this, then I completely support the action.

[Tom]

It will be interesting to see if YouTube does indeed help.