On Saturday, I attended “Sound Bites and Fury Political ~ Narrative in the Digital Age” at the State Library as a part of the Brisbane Writers Festival featuring @LaurieOakes @NickBryantOz & @dwabriz

The panel consisted of Nick Bryant – BBC correspondent based in Sydney, Andrew Lee – a ALP MP and an economist who wrote Disconnected, and Laurie Oakes – Channel 9 political correspondent. The panel was chaired by Dennis Atkins – aka

Here is a rough summary of the panel discussions from the event.

In the digital age, the story is almost old by the time you walk out the door…stories get bigger because there is so much more coverage…journalists are stretched and called on to give quick judgements…the proper discourse does not go through the process…Julia Gillard said she would stand back from the media and rule the county however she has not done this, she is on TV every night in a fluro and a hard hats…

In the past, 5 opinion pieces were written on a political issue, today in the digital age this has now become 50 pieces. In a country with over 20 million people, this is still not a lot…Politics was once debated in paragraphs … now it is debated in phrases.

This has become a global trend…there is an ability to broadcast from anywhere in the world at anytime…Substantive pieces could be written on number of issues…but it seems politics has been reduced to a brutal business of Punch and Judy…All panel members agreed that the latest poll numbers is boring… Polls are overdone in Australia…but politicians are engaging in the cheap trivial stuff and they are paying for it … Whenever Malcolm Turnball is on Lateline twitter goes crazy they love his in-depth conversations

Laurie Oakes told us that the ALP distributes to its members every morning their opinion on all matters that they could be asked about. This is updated during the day.

Here is a clip of Ed Miliband British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, answering 6 different questions the same way. He was hoping they would grab a sound bite from it. He obviously did not think they would release the entire interview on YouTube, so we the public can make up our own mind.

Ed Miliband (UK) responds to 6 questions the same way

Hopefully this is the full video :-

If it doe snot work try :- Ed Miliband the full video

In today’s age politicians need to comment on who won idol…politicians are now on FM radio…politicians are frantically looking for different ways to connect with the constituents…John Howard uses talk back radio to set the agenda…

Sound bites have decreased from 43 seconds down to 7 seconds.

My personal thoughts on the matter are that in the digital age politicians have access to social media; blogs, youtubes, twitter, facebook. Politicians can connect directly and instantly with their constituents and do not need to be concerned with the media filters. If

they have been misquoted, they can promote their own version of events. With over 1 million twitter followers Kevin Rudd has realised this. Kevin Rudd tweets, and his are replicated in the media and on blogs.

“Just got to a million twitter followers. Thanks to all. One guy said it’s time for a new twitter pic. How about my 1977 mo photo? KRudd”

Used wisely and thoughtfully politicians could use powerful digital tools to connect with and express their message to constituents instantly and directly. Are they?