Twittering isn't just for the birds

Birds tweet. To the untrained human ear this random cacophony of noise is not unpleasant but it is just background noise. So to Twitter. Twitter has emerged as the de rigueur tool of the political commentariat. Because of this, it has also come in for criticism from members of that class who lack an understanding of how the internet has encroached positively into political life.

Rachel Sylvester's article in The Times is a good example. Sylvester completely misses the point about Twitter and as a result dismisses it and all who Twitter as social-outcasts desperately in search of validation. She makes the classic mistake of linking a tool to a technology to a stereotypical socially inadequate geek. What Sylvester fails to notice is that Web2.0 has dragged us out of the cubicle, sidelined the pony-tail and made online communication not just fashionable but - and this my point - useful.

Twitter works because people use it. It is not a broadcast medium - although it can be used in this way. The value of Twitter lies in a whole slew of semi-random and often disconnected conversations. Twitter is awash with snippets, ideas, announcements, leads and comments.  

As someone who has been immersed in the world of digital communications for far too long, I struggle to keep up with what's new and who is doing what. Twitter really does help with this. I twitter (note use as a verb) not to raise my self-esteem or in the hope that someone will one day affirm my existence through it. I do so because it is a useful way of releasing thoughts, ideas and even frustrations that collectively might add some value to our body of knowledge on digital engagement. In a fast-changing digital landscape, ideas are perishable so delivery to market needs to be fast for maximum freshness.

So why wouldn't MPs twitter? Tom Harris MP said at our recent MPs online report launch that he started blogging because, as a minister, he was limited to speaking on a very narrow portfolio, yet he had lots of other ideas and opinions that he - as a politician - wanted to express. Twitter is simply an extension of this, including personal ‘tweets' simply a way of humanising those who twitter.

Is Twitter the future of politics? Who knows! Probably not. But it adds not just colour but real value and a democratising potential to political (and wider) discourses. Digital media can challenge the power structures and the political elites and surely that's a good thing?

Andy Williamson