Labour candidate Stuart MacLennan has recently been sacked for his microblogging. Tweets like “Cameron = twat†earned him the boot on Friday.
Microblogging allows small amounts of information to be shared instantly – perfect for election chitchat. If we are to learn from MacLennan’s mistake, though, perhaps we should be wary of dumbing down too much. Microblogging’s 140 character limit encourages succinct points, but could stifle longer and more powerful political argument. Raising their status to ‘profound insight’, exciting tools like this can even instantly analyse public opinion through our microblogs. But it’s difficult to argue the case for or against the Trident missile system in 140 words (at least, in any meaningful way.)
For those who might want to discuss a little more than microblogging allows, but still enjoy instantaneous contribution, how about ‘miniblogging’ using 140 words? Like this one.
