BRENT TENNANT
NEWS REPORTER
Political figures need to be extra cautious of what they post online, said Gary Begg, Canadian history and politics professor at Humber.
On Nov. 20 Janine Krieber, wife of ex-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, criticized the party and it’s current leader Michael Ignatieff on Facebook. The comments were taken down within a day, but not before they were circulated widely in political circles and in the media.
As a prominent political figure, Janine Krieber probably had many people who could view her posts, said James Cullin, interactive multimedia program co-ordinator at Humber.
Posting something viewable by a high number of people is “like going on the biggest radio station and broadcasting it,” he said.
Cullin said that even if you delete something from the internet is could still be saved and accessed later.
George Bragues, head of the business program at Guelph-Humber, agrees.
With the increase in media coverage and speed of the internet, “no matter what you say or who you say it to, there’s someone watching,” he said.
Begg said the Internet is enabling people to find good and bad things about politicians. “They have to have led an unblemished life, which is nearly impossible.”
He said the internet has had a negative effect on politics because it the public from having an analytical attitude on the subject.
With the rise of the internet and the decline of print media, Bragues said, it’s easier for people to focus on information that fits with their political ideology and ignore information that doesn’t.
However, the internet has also drawn people closer to politicians, Begg said. People are generally more willing to volunteer to help a politician’s campaign through Facebook, or otherwise online, than they are to knock on doors.
It goes even beyond that, Bragues said. Politicians can now get funding from a larger pool of people, thanks to the Internet.
“In the past, that tended to be from a smaller group,” he said, adding that the low cost of online allows politicians to reach a wider group of people and ask them for less money.
“The Obama campaign really actualized that one,” he said.