While I guess that things like this are likely to be the wave of the future it is, nonetheless, a little strange.
While in some ways making announcements via Twitter might increase access to the content of the decision, this approach might disperse official policy stances of the government across the web. Determining which of these positions are the official positions of the government, given that they are on non-official sites, might be challenging.
Also, who controls this data? Will these tweets be available permanently and in venues other than Twitter? Will these tweets be considered official government statements? Who will manage this information? All in all, the switch to this platform seems to have been taken without much planning or thought.
All of this is not to say that the current government doesn't have a number of good reasons to move to this platform for official announcements. Firstly, Twitter is fast. For instance, Clement was able to get his message out to thousands almost instantaneously. This speed means that news cycles can be skipped or toyed with. Secondly, Twitter provides a way for the government/ministers to communicate directly with interested parties and the public, a feature that must be particularly appealing to this somewhat media-phobic government. The government does not have to rely on the mass media to transmit their message to the public nor worry that their message might be distorted by devious journalists. Furthermore, follow-up questions from the public (or media) can be addressed directly and quickly (and these are things that Clement seems interested in).
And finally, it seems that with same Twitter account that Clement is using to make policy statements he is also commenting about important topics such as the quantity of Red Bull his squash competitors have consumed or what he thinks about the half-time entertainment at the upcoming Super Bowl.
Thus Clement is blurring the lines between his public and private persona. When he says something on Twitter, as he has been for the past while, is it a reflection of the government's position (i.e. Does the Canadian government think that the Black Eyed Peas suck?) or are such positions reflections only of Clement's personal beliefs? How are citizens to know when Tony Clement is speaking for only Tony Clement or when he is actually speaking for the Government?
Anyway, given that this trend is likely to increase in popularity rather than diminish I think that a few of these issues (and likely a few that I have neglected to discuss) are worth considering somewhat seriously before we proceed too far along this path.
Score
Cameron 13
Neil 0
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