CampaignTV – how long before the left gets the internet?

Following Simon Dickson’s tip-off I took a look at Campaign TV –"the first free to view, independently-owned Labour-supporting internet TV channel."

I say took a look, but it was more of a glance to be honest. I completely agree with Simon’s thoughts on the new site:

"They’ve
clearly got good connections, given the one-to-one interviews with
senior Labour figures including the PM, and footage from official
events. Most of it, sadly, is standard corporate-video fare: smiling
faces, snappy soundbites, muzak.

Will it engage me as a voter? No. …
when we [have] stuff like this, clearly over-edited and over-produced, we
automatically disengage. People only create material like this when
they’re trying to preach at you. And nobody wants to be preached at."

Simon also points out the site doesn’t work in Firefox – oops!

I might be being a bit too picky but I think it shows how much this site in particular doesn’t get it. The ‘about section’ declares proudly:

"CAMPAIGNTV meets the urgent need for a progressive challenge to
the dominance of right-leaning political content on the internet. It’s
the place to find films making a case for the Labour Party, for trade
unions and for other progressive campaigns."

I can understand the need for a good left-leaning site to match the Right’s 18Doughtystreet
and Webcameron
but simply putting up content for the sake of it misses the point that
makes Webcameron and 18DS successful: they build dialogue, engage and
empower users.

One of the people behind the site is Gez Sagar who is "a former
chief press officer for the Labour Party who has worked in PR and
campaigning for 20 years." The thing is, those traditionally strong
credentials may not help if he isn’t up to speed on what is happening
in the political online space; how the public expect to be communicated
with and what political parties must do to get it right.

Technorati tags: CampaignTV, Labour,  18 Doughty Street, Webcameron, politics