Robert Scoble’s wife Maryam interviewed an American politician’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards. More out of curiosity than anything else, I clicked through to see the show. I’ve met Maryam, she’s a lovely lady in all senses. But in all honesty I wasn’t expecting a lot. Maryam’s a great person but as a video interviewer? I wasn’t sure. Boy was I wrong.
Maryam does an excellent job discussing issues of importance to her community. Hearing some of the politico’s answers as to why she uses the blog, podcast and videocast media, it was immediately apparent that at least one American politician understands that it is no longer possible to manipulate the media audience. A few gems (slightly paraphrased) from Elizabeth’s responses:
‘Mainstream media is largely like an echo chamber’
‘The Internet is not theatre.’
‘Once the community grows to a certain point then you don’t own it anymore, the community owns itself and now you have to queue to find out the direction they want you to go.’
‘People I don’t actually know but have been my ‘saving graces.’
Heavy stuff isn’t it?
Then I remembered Ken Frost’s Stop the Merger campaign and the video he produced last year. I wonder how the campaign would look if it was run the way Maryam engaged with the equivalent of a senior ICAEW council member? How about using these techniques to discuss issues of importance to clients? Do you agree with me that AccountancyAge did a great job summarising SoftWorld?
When someone is passionate enough about an issue, then they become a prime candidate for hosting a Q&A on topics of importance. Their ‘professional’ experience doesn’t really matter, provided they are courteous. Sounds like an antidote to Jeremy Paxman. But would ‘we’ necessarily learn all that we could this way? I’m doubtful in the short term but at least we’d get a couple of steps closer to being participants in discussions of importance. Anyone care to calculate the value of that? It’s certainly an innovative idea, with a lot of potential.
Technorati Tags: Scoble, videoblogging
