Comments on: Sky News pressing for TV debate http://puffbox.com/2009/09/02/sky-news-pressing-for-tv-debate/ Adventures in government, politics and open source. Mostly WordPress-related. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:55:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Paul Lettan http://puffbox.com/2009/09/02/sky-news-pressing-for-tv-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-1107 Paul Lettan Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:48:40 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=1083#comment-1107 I have been involved in politics in the States, Canada, France and the UK. I have briefed prior to TV and radio debates. TV debates are vastly over-rated and, to my mind, useless. Radio debates are more effective. TV debate has a short memory span whereas radio sticks in the mind for much longer. TV is more visually dynamic but people remember irrelevant facts. Policy debate is better absorbed and remembered on radio. A national radio debate would be far superior. Even an internet conversation would be better than TV. I have been involved in politics in the States, Canada, France and the UK. I have briefed prior to TV and radio debates. TV debates are vastly over-rated and, to my mind, useless. Radio debates are more effective. TV debate has a short memory span whereas radio sticks in the mind for much longer. TV is more visually dynamic but people remember irrelevant facts. Policy debate is better absorbed and remembered on radio. A national radio debate would be far superior. Even an internet conversation would be better than TV.

]]> By: Nick http://puffbox.com/2009/09/02/sky-news-pressing-for-tv-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-1106 Nick Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:47:17 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=1083#comment-1106 The difference between Afghan and US elections and ours is that we vote for a local candidate rather than a president. From a media point of view, this is a difficult narative and they would like to simplify the story by treating the PM as a President - helped by Tony Blair acting as one. The debate might well be entertaining but it means the main qualification for PM would be "Looks good on telly". You might argue we are there anyway but for the sake of clever but ugly people I hope not. In an ideal world, we would have local debates by the local candidates. That's too much content for mainstream telly though so it would be pushed to digital and only watched by political anoraks, the same people who will know what the candidates stand for anyway. The difference between Afghan and US elections and ours is that we vote for a local candidate rather than a president. From a media point of view, this is a difficult narative and they would like to simplify the story by treating the PM as a President - helped by Tony Blair acting as one.

The debate might well be entertaining but it means the main qualification for PM would be "Looks good on telly". You might argue we are there anyway but for the sake of clever but ugly people I hope not.

In an ideal world, we would have local debates by the local candidates. That's too much content for mainstream telly though so it would be pushed to digital and only watched by political anoraks, the same people who will know what the candidates stand for anyway.

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