September 30, 2009 Comments 4
What if Therese Rein admitted that she had been an interstellar traveller? Or had multiple past lives where she met current celebrities? The Australian public would surely say she's completely nuts and Mr Therese Rein, KRudd, would invariably try to micro-manage the situation to limit the damage. However the Japanese public are entirely embracing their new first lady despite revelations that Mrs Miyuki Hatoyama has been to Venus (yes, the planet) and 'feasts' on the sun's energy. Mrs Hatoyama also has connections with the rich and famous, most notably actor Tom Cruise, whom she met in a previous life when Cruise was Japanese.
Are we missing out on something in Australia? I'm all for leaders being reasonably sane, or as much as they can be, but wouldn't it spice things up if at least their wives were interplanetary voyagers or thought they were? The cult of the first lady in the western world surrounds those like Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, who are articulate, beautiful, fashionable and influential. But if we are going to have partners of the powerful entering into the spotlight, why can't they be a mouthful short of a sun feast?
Japan is pioneering in its embrace of the weird in public life. We love Japanese culture because of its high-tech, often sci-fi, quality which is unique in the world. Mrs Hatoyama, in a honeymoon with the Japanese public, fits perfectly into this culture. A self-titled 'life composer', she has now become a regular on chat shows.
and is a sometime author, with books like "Very Strange things I have Encountered" and a spiritual food cook book. After having married the equivalent of a 'Japanese Kennedy', she shot to fame in the international media after the election for her slightly bizarre perspective on the world and her willingness to express it openly.
There is undoubtedly an emerging cult of first ladies in the world. As leaders have become more humanised and personality driven, we love to know about the people behind them. They are also off limits for any real criticisms - they did not chose to be in the public eye, their partners did. We are more willing to cut them slack but for some reason we need to know what they think and more and more what they are wearing (Mrs Hatoyama for instance has dressed in a skirt made out of hemp coffee sacks). Michelle Obama is at the heart of the obsession. During her husband's election campaign she became a key part and arguably aided Barack Obama's rise to power. There is also a bit of a cult around Therese Rein, although she is a much less public figure than Mrs Obama. Rein is intelligent, successful and personable - many would say preferable to her husband.
So what if Therese Rein did say a hatoyama-ism? Australia does have its fair share of odd people in public life (I'm sure as you read this you can think of a few) but they are not quite declaring openly they believe in UFOs. You can imagine if Therese Rein suddenly said that she had been to Venus, there would be an out-cry and a call for the Prime Minister's resignation. The spin doctors would jump in to say she's been under a lot of strain and has 'X' psychological disorder. There would be concern about her influence over her husband and Rudd would undoubtedly try to (pardon the pun) rein her in, restricting public appearances. It's a pity. I think people are yearning for a bit more madness. With everything so stage-managed and controlled, getting to paint-dry level, we need a Mrs Hatoyama. We need an eccentric aunt at a boring family function. Embarrassing for most of the family but a topic of conversation around the potato salad, making the whole affair a bit more enjoyable. A bit of open lunacy is important. Maybe we could take a lesson or two from the Japanese.
Bella Counihan is Lady Goanna
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Politwits
Like cocaine in the '80s or flannel shirts in the '90s, Twitter has become the new sweeping trend for the 2000s. And in political circles, it could actually be making question times more bearable.Recent changes allowing mobile devices into the House of Representatives chamber have led to journalists "tweeting" question time live. The likes of the Sydney Morning Herald's Annabel Crabb, Crikey's Bernard Keane, The Age's Tony Wright, 2UE's Latika Bourke and Crikey's blogger Possum Comitatus from blog Pollytics have been tweeting non-stop during question time in the past two parliamentary sessions. They provide up-to-the-minute fashion comment, online heckling and an undercurrent of political analysis. News tweeting already exists in Britain and the US, but these Australian journalists present a unique larrikin voice in the twitterverse - unedited and informal for the twitter public. The micro-analysis could add to our understanding of the political dynamic as it happens, but it needs a dedicated audience to seek it out. So the question is, is this voice enough to keep us following?
Twitter.com, described as the ADHD brother of Facebook, is usually the place for mundane babble but recently has come into its own as a news medium. This was notable during the recent turbulent elections in Iran, where protesters were reporting from the ground. People in the twitterverse searched update terms such as "Iran" and found relevant "tweets" on the issue. Journalists are slowly getting involved, using twitter to find and discuss news. In the US and Britain, journalist tweeting is often officially sponsored by publications, often limited to promoting their articles or personal twitter navel gazing. Australian MPs have also been tweeting - most infamously the member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, was told to stop tweeting one question time by Lindsay Tanner.
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have also climbed on the twitter bandwagon, trying get that tech-savvy label. But for the press gallery and other political journalists, it has become a competitive sport. Although many such as The Age's Michelle Grattan and Sky News' David Spears are only occasional tweeters, more are now gathering at 2pm at the online gate to fire off the first witty observation from question time. Along with Crikey's question time bingo, it is finally making a dull affair a bit more interesting.MPs' appearance, good and bad (usually bad), has been consistently tweeted. It was clearly welcome, for example, when Deputy PM Julia Gillard's jacket with purple piping introduced during one question time was later replaced with a more demure outfit. Tony Wright tweeting "Gillard has seen the stylist, dropped purple piping and gone for nice white piping on black and emerald top. Someone's been advising." The humour and sarcasm in these press gallery question time tweets are also a nice change from the usual straight analysis found in conventional media. Annabel Crabb during the interminable debate about Gorgon tweeted "I feel like throwing in my own question. Will the Gorgon deal help keep my hair shiny? Will it ease away those problem wrinkles?"
This informal approach seems to be unique among tweeting journalists. Twitter can have its more serious purposes for journos. They are increasingly using it as a form of communal note taking, particularly useful when someone misses a bit of the action. The extra background happenings (members being chucked out or shouts in the chamber) are often not officially recorded and can be easily missed. Crikey's possum pollytics, for example, informed his other tweeters of a recent question time stunt: "For those that missed it, Emerson finished his comedy routine, Nats and Indis held up cards with scores on them, Bob K had his upside down." These tweets, although mainly there to help inform other journos, also give a sense for the online followers of the colour and movement in the day's events. These types of incidents, of course, don't always make it into normal coverage. It represents a rare opportunity to understand the context, gossip and analysis of Parliament's goings-on.
Despite this potential and the popularity of Twitter, one can see both followers and followees getting a bit bored and not only because of the appalling series of dull and repetitive question times. One tweeter criticised, "Can't believe how many journalists covering question time in here churn out useless rubbish. Few seem to add any value." Without an engaged audience, there is a distinct potential for the commentators to feel as though they are merely tweeting to themselves, or at best each other. In that kind of environment, bloggers will probably abandon the medium. But, equally, if the audience becomes large and journalists' respective publications become involved like in the US and Britain, you would lose the informality of the Australian journos twitter comment. It seems question time tweets may never reach their potential, fading away into the milky way of the twitterverse.
Twitter.com, described as the ADHD brother of Facebook, is usually the place for mundane babble but recently has come into its own as a news medium. This was notable during the recent turbulent elections in Iran, where protesters were reporting from the ground. People in the twitterverse searched update terms such as "Iran" and found relevant "tweets" on the issue. Journalists are slowly getting involved, using twitter to find and discuss news. In the US and Britain, journalist tweeting is often officially sponsored by publications, often limited to promoting their articles or personal twitter navel gazing. Australian MPs have also been tweeting - most infamously the member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, was told to stop tweeting one question time by Lindsay Tanner.
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have also climbed on the twitter bandwagon, trying get that tech-savvy label. But for the press gallery and other political journalists, it has become a competitive sport. Although many such as The Age's Michelle Grattan and Sky News' David Spears are only occasional tweeters, more are now gathering at 2pm at the online gate to fire off the first witty observation from question time. Along with Crikey's question time bingo, it is finally making a dull affair a bit more interesting.MPs' appearance, good and bad (usually bad), has been consistently tweeted. It was clearly welcome, for example, when Deputy PM Julia Gillard's jacket with purple piping introduced during one question time was later replaced with a more demure outfit. Tony Wright tweeting "Gillard has seen the stylist, dropped purple piping and gone for nice white piping on black and emerald top. Someone's been advising." The humour and sarcasm in these press gallery question time tweets are also a nice change from the usual straight analysis found in conventional media. Annabel Crabb during the interminable debate about Gorgon tweeted "I feel like throwing in my own question. Will the Gorgon deal help keep my hair shiny? Will it ease away those problem wrinkles?"
This informal approach seems to be unique among tweeting journalists. Twitter can have its more serious purposes for journos. They are increasingly using it as a form of communal note taking, particularly useful when someone misses a bit of the action. The extra background happenings (members being chucked out or shouts in the chamber) are often not officially recorded and can be easily missed. Crikey's possum pollytics, for example, informed his other tweeters of a recent question time stunt: "For those that missed it, Emerson finished his comedy routine, Nats and Indis held up cards with scores on them, Bob K had his upside down." These tweets, although mainly there to help inform other journos, also give a sense for the online followers of the colour and movement in the day's events. These types of incidents, of course, don't always make it into normal coverage. It represents a rare opportunity to understand the context, gossip and analysis of Parliament's goings-on.
Despite this potential and the popularity of Twitter, one can see both followers and followees getting a bit bored and not only because of the appalling series of dull and repetitive question times. One tweeter criticised, "Can't believe how many journalists covering question time in here churn out useless rubbish. Few seem to add any value." Without an engaged audience, there is a distinct potential for the commentators to feel as though they are merely tweeting to themselves, or at best each other. In that kind of environment, bloggers will probably abandon the medium. But, equally, if the audience becomes large and journalists' respective publications become involved like in the US and Britain, you would lose the informality of the Australian journos twitter comment. It seems question time tweets may never reach their potential, fading away into the milky way of the twitterverse.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Rudd gets an "F" for Yoof
Only Kevin Rudd would think of telling the story of RM Williams when talking to young people. Youths can relate to RM Williams, according to our PM, because he was only 24 “when he designed his famous elastic-sided boots for stockmen”. This pretty much sums up the PM's understanding of people under 25 in his new blog "Helping young Australians build their futures". The title alone is very Rudd.
Recently the PM has made half-hearted attempts to engage with an online audience through blogs and twitter. But the 'yoof' blog — which started Friday — stands out for its condescending style. Rudd is the school principal handing out the 'good effort' awards to the bottom-of-the-pile students at the back of the hall. You can almost hear him say, "here you go young people, you're doing your best" and counselling them with the phrase "growing up has its challenges".
The PM's intro to the blog reads like a youth issues rap sheet - implying all young people are overweight, mentally ill, violent or helpless. But don't worry, says Rudd, we're having youth summits and meetings. Labor has a young people plan, apparently, and this blog will be an integral part. The PM (or presumably one of his staff) writes: "to get us rolling, I want to hear from you what matters most". This deserves an old school Garth from Wayne's World style "nawt". Rudd is the nerd trying too hard, with a “too cool for school” sticker on his backpack. There is no point pretending he will magically turn the comments posted on the youth blog into policy.
One can't help but compare the youth blog with Obama's back to school speech to US students. Although the Obama speech was meant for a younger audience, it expressed some noble truths about the need for young people to be involved citizens. Despite a pre-speech ideological war over Obama's ''indoctrination" of his audience, the American president spoke genuinely about responsibility and the importance of education. This went alongside the normal platitudes about "staying in school" and "listening to your parents". Although a bit cheesy at times, the Obama speech clearly had a resonance. There was an organised interactive element, where students were asked to write letters to the President. However there was no pretence about policy here, merely an attempt to get students' thinking.
The PM's youth blog is a think-free zone. The few comments posted after its launch seemed to be a recycling of the PM's message. These were clearly not the disengaged, overweight and violent youth referred to in the intro. And why would they be? The disengaged will probably never hear of this blog. Why would most young people even think of going on the PM's website in the first place? Let alone registering with an email and password — a prerequisite for participating in the blog. The internet and blogs in particular are for seekers of information. Obama's address was able to engage students because it was organised within schools and asked the audience to write letters as part of a school project. Youth summits and blogs are all very well but they target young people who are already engaged, maybe even aspiring to one day slip into the PM's shoes. Not those who wouldn't even think of the idea.
Rudd, I give your blog an F for 'yoof'.
Recently the PM has made half-hearted attempts to engage with an online audience through blogs and twitter. But the 'yoof' blog — which started Friday — stands out for its condescending style. Rudd is the school principal handing out the 'good effort' awards to the bottom-of-the-pile students at the back of the hall. You can almost hear him say, "here you go young people, you're doing your best" and counselling them with the phrase "growing up has its challenges".
The PM's intro to the blog reads like a youth issues rap sheet - implying all young people are overweight, mentally ill, violent or helpless. But don't worry, says Rudd, we're having youth summits and meetings. Labor has a young people plan, apparently, and this blog will be an integral part. The PM (or presumably one of his staff) writes: "to get us rolling, I want to hear from you what matters most". This deserves an old school Garth from Wayne's World style "nawt". Rudd is the nerd trying too hard, with a “too cool for school” sticker on his backpack. There is no point pretending he will magically turn the comments posted on the youth blog into policy.
One can't help but compare the youth blog with Obama's back to school speech to US students. Although the Obama speech was meant for a younger audience, it expressed some noble truths about the need for young people to be involved citizens. Despite a pre-speech ideological war over Obama's ''indoctrination" of his audience, the American president spoke genuinely about responsibility and the importance of education. This went alongside the normal platitudes about "staying in school" and "listening to your parents". Although a bit cheesy at times, the Obama speech clearly had a resonance. There was an organised interactive element, where students were asked to write letters to the President. However there was no pretence about policy here, merely an attempt to get students' thinking.
The PM's youth blog is a think-free zone. The few comments posted after its launch seemed to be a recycling of the PM's message. These were clearly not the disengaged, overweight and violent youth referred to in the intro. And why would they be? The disengaged will probably never hear of this blog. Why would most young people even think of going on the PM's website in the first place? Let alone registering with an email and password — a prerequisite for participating in the blog. The internet and blogs in particular are for seekers of information. Obama's address was able to engage students because it was organised within schools and asked the audience to write letters as part of a school project. Youth summits and blogs are all very well but they target young people who are already engaged, maybe even aspiring to one day slip into the PM's shoes. Not those who wouldn't even think of the idea.
Rudd, I give your blog an F for 'yoof'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)