Now fighting it out on Twitter too
Just a short post to draw attention to one of the more interesting aspects of the hearings of commissioners-designate, one which may mark an important change in the way EP political groups communicate.
I was fascinated to observe during the seven days of hearings we have already had, and presumably in the one more we are yet to have, the (often contrasting) reactions of the two largest EP political groups were posted almost in real time on Twitter, via the official group feeds.
The EPP (European People’s Party – @EPPGroup), which posted I think the greater number of tweets, took the approach of citing the views of an individual MEP, the group coordinator for the hearing in question, given in the immediate aftermath of each hearing. Though these tweets were attributed to an individual member, the fact they were posted from the EPP Group feed clearly indicated that they could be considered reasonably authoritative as to the group line as a whole.
The S&D group (Socialists and Democrats – @TheProgressives) took a different approach, posting tweets simply in the name of the group, though not systematically after each hearing as the EPP did, but selectively. In the case of the S&D group, a second string was added by the Group’s Press spokesman, Tony Robinson, twittering in his own name, adding additional comment, speaking clearly for the group. For this, I could not find a direct equivalent in the EPP.
Other political groups did not follow this approach, even those which both have and use group Twitter feeds, for example the third largest ALDE group (@ALDEgroup). That said, many, many members of all groups were twittering in their own right on the subject. (To see who’s active on Twitter, see an interesting, though still slightly buggy, independent aggregation site, Europatweets.)
This is a radical departure, and one driven purely by the changing online environment.
I am not party to the internal discussions of these groups (or any other), but I can imagine that all have had to address the tension between the internal discussions and processes which are always needed to set a group “line” on any political question and the demands of news media, and now also social media, for quick responses.
What interests me here, for the first time that I have observed, is the outcome. The largest groups in Parliament – not the smallest, which one might expect to find it easier – have clearly decided that the value of getting one’s views out early on Twitter trumps a more prudent reflex. Obviously, the groups in question avoid unnecessary hostages to fortune, but reading their tweets nonetheless gave a good feel for how the hearings process would pan out. This is actually quite a radical departure, and one driven purely by the changing online environment. Political communication in the EU environment has taken an important step.
It’s early days, for sure, but Twitterers take note: the EP political groups are now firmly in your midst!
Why stop at twitter? Can’t we have cross-EU conversations which aren’t limited to 140 characters? Most EU issues, after all, require a little more depth. ;-)
This reminds me of some experiments we toyed with a few years back, before Twitter existed. The idea was to set up some sort of feedburner which aggregates posts on EU issues based on commonly agreed, yet author-added tags. Like bloggingportal, but semi-automated.
Such an aggregator faces a real chicken and egg problem, of course.
Being a single platform, Twitter provides the single ecosystem for that Darwinian effect operating on hashtags. I imagine that a set of hashtags will emerge from that process this year.
It can’t come soon enough – once we have a real lexicon of hashtags used to process tweets pointing to more detailed blogposts, the conversation will hopefully move both upwards and outwards.
RT @Web2EU: Writing for (y)EU seeks ideas on common # for institutions http://j.mp/aBtzkJ http://post.ly/MIvi
Writing for (y)EU seeks ideas on common # for institutions http://j.mp/aBtzkJ http://post.ly/MIvi
How can we initiate common hashtags for different institutional actors of the European Union? Ideas most welcome: http://j.mp/aBtzkJ #web2eu
Steve, I fully understand why you feel you can’t suggest to all kinds of political actors how to use Twitter and which #hashtags to use.
But then, what stops us blogging Eurogeeks from pointing them kindly in the right direction?
And if the pointing does not help we might just retweet the hashtagfree Tweets with the hashtag attached :)
Hi Eurosocialiste, you have a point of course. It was a great shame for example that the two big political groups did not use the #hearings hashtag when they were tweeting their reactions to the hearings. It meant that many will have missed their real time views. I have a feeling that newcomers to Twitter – i.e. most EP sources – take a while to appreciate the value of hashtags, something linked to an initial perception of Twitter as a means of broadcasting (which it also is, of course) as opposed to a means of conducting a conversation – which is when it really gets interesting. Consciousness of hashtags outside the regular Twittersphere – say amongst those organising most hearings, meetings and events – is moreover close to zero. A shame, because it would be great if all posters, invitations and online publicity for such events proposed a hashtag. It’ll take a little time…
As things stand, hashtags have a pleasing Darwinian dimension too. This applies internally too. We wouldn’t dream, for instance, of trying to tell MEPs, political groups et al how to tweet, so the question is whether the official EP twitter feeds, as we currently use them, have the “weight” to define hashtags. I wonder. We dipped a toe in this water when we tweeted Question Time last time round, using the tag #epqt. No-one picked it up and we got a little demoralised. However, you are right that we should try, especially as a euro-twitter community seems to be slowly impinging on the collective consciousness, and we should be more assiduous about picking up tags that are already out there. So, let’s just say thanks for the very pertinent suggestion, and we will do our best!
Hello,
Is there any chance that EP staff and MEPs use a common hashtag for their tweets in the future? So far, hashtags have been appearing spontanously on the initiative of random twitterers. This time, there were three: #hearing #hearings and #ephearing which fragmented the discussion. A lead from your part on that side would be welcome.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tayebot: Steve’s views on new incomers on #Twitter on our team’s blog. “Twittering the hearings” http://bit.ly/9yfgg0...
Writing for (y)EU: Twittering the hearings: Just a short post to draw attention to one of the more interesting as… http://bit.ly/c7FG3z
RT @stctweets: Listen up! @EPPGroup and @TheProgressives are telling you what they think on Twitter. http://bit.ly/9vkN6u #web2eu
RT @stctweets: Listen up! @EPPGroup and @TheProgressives are telling you what they think on Twitter. http://bit.ly/9vkN6u #web2eu
Listen up! @EPPGroup and @TheProgressives are telling you what they think on Twitter. A whole new thing. http://bit.ly/9vkN6u #web2eu
Steve's views on new incomers on #Twitter on our team's blog. "Twittering the hearings" http://bit.ly/9yfgg0