… and other things that came out of the debate on politics, journalism and the general election held at City University last night.

The panel, including Sam Coates, The Times’s Chief Political Correspondent, Steve Richards, Commentator for the Independent and Pippa Crerar, political correspondent for the Evening Standard discussed topics including the Sun’s defection from Labour to the Tories (which was seen as having little impact) , blogging, youtube and the BNP.

Sam Coates, despite dismissing twitter’s role in campaigning with the whimsical “please, god, no more twitter” said that blogs would have far more influence in the next general election and could potentially become the “highest form of political journalism.”

Steve Richards announced that the next general election would be “the election of the internet” with coverage being far more web-based.

He argued that the internet had the potential to derail carefully co-ordinated general election campaigns, suggesting that if a candidate were to say something off message “it will be on YouTube within 10 minutes.”

Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time was also criticised by Richards who suggested that the format was too easy for him.

One of the most interesting points made in the debate was about Gordon Brown and the future of the Labour party.

He was amusingly described by Richards as a combination between a “lofty academic and a deranged journalist” who constantlyover-analyses the media impact of his actions (see biscuitgate)

All three panellists predicted a swing towards the conservatives, and Crerar suggested that it would make very little difference to Labour’s prospects in the general election if Gordon Brown stayed on as a leader or not.

Cameron’s Euroscepticism was also briefly discussed, with Richards suggesting that this was too easily dismissed as a pragmatic response to the traditional Euro-phones within the Conservative party, and actually represented one of the Conservative leader’s few genuine convictions.

Reader comments

1. Marie McDaniel

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2. Tweet 4 All

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3. Dina Rickman

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4. Marie McDaniel

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5. Are blogs the highest form of political journalism? « Dinarickman's Blog

   [...] posted at Liberal Conspiracy and similar article by Tom Brooks Pollock and myself at journalism.co.uk Possibly related posts: [...]

6. Tweet 4 All

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8. Now can we please talk about something else? « Freethinking Economist

   [...] the meantime, Lib Con had two interesting posts: one, that calls Political Blogging the Highest Form of Journalism.  This makes me wonder, again, why think tanks don’t make a better fist of it.  A lack of [...]

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