I’ve been a webcast guinea pig!

I was one of a trio of people who tried out doing a daily video diary / webcast / online film / call it what you will from the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton this year. The other two were our leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and my friend Duncan Brack – who chairs the conference committee. We were also joined on various days by a few “special guests”, such as Paddy Ashdown who did one broadcast himself too. (Given Paddy’s well-known fondness for hi-tech gadgetry and his background, I was a bit disappointed to find he didn’t go round with his own live web-casting camera sown into a buttonhole!).

So – what to make of it? My pieces were all done in a couple of takes. I simply talked off the cuff – and then repeated the procedure so that if I mangled my words or there was a hitch with the sound etc, there was a second take to use instead. I liked the freedom to talk at greater length than you normally get with the broadcast media – and without a Jeremy Paxman wannabe interrupting every nanosecond to ask another question! Talking off the cuff also made the whole operation quite quick to do.

As to whether the results were worth it … you’ll have to watch and be the judge! Personally decided that use of hands akin to windmills not helpful and somewhat distracting. However, for a first time out – not too painful.

The Lib Dems aren’t the only people trying out such films. I notice that David Cameron has got in on the act too now. The wobbly hand-held camera just tries a bit TOO hard to say, “hey, this is me, I’m real, I’m not really a politician, you know”.

And I am very dubious about the way his family – including children – appear. It’s almost as if they’re extra props to say: “hey, this is me, I’m real, I’m not really a politician”.

I’ve don’t feature my family in photos on leaflets – and only rarely mention them elsewhere in politics. Children are such a big (and wonderful!) part of any parent’s life, you can’t act as if they don’t exist – but I think you have to be very, very careful to avoid being seen to exploit them for political gain. It also leaves you wide open to charges of hypocrisy if you subsequently try to protect them from media intrusion. After all, if you say, “look what a good parent I am”, what answer do you then have to a journalist who says, “that means it’s fair game for me to find out if you really are a good parent?” and so goes nosing around into what you’re children are doing and how they’re faring?

But back to webcasting – is it the future? I hope it helps engage more directly with people who wouldn’t otherwise pay attention to politics – and I’ve tried one on a local hospital issue too – but even for us politicos, it is much more interesting watching a film about the party’s policy on climate change than it is sitting down and reading a policy briefing that contains the same information.

If these techniques help make policy more interesting and digestible, that’s good news for everyone. A similar example is the party’s campaign against Labour’s insistence on building a large-scale database of DNA records of innocent people. There’s an important case to make that this is bad news for innocent people – in answer to that old saw, yes innocent people do have something to fear from Labour’s plans. But I suspect more people will find it easy to sit down and listen to Nick Clegg’s webcast on the site on the subject than will read my lovingly-crafted words in a Liberator article on the same subject.

Love it or hate it – moving pictures and sounds are often much softer on the mind and easier to digest than reading the written word!

Note: this article first appeared on Liberal Review.