In our book we described how Gordon Brown struggles to shake off the ‘analogue politician’ moniker given to him by David Cameron. For all his intellectual rigour, Brown is not a natural communicator and despite surrounding himself with some smart new media thinkers, he continues to look uncomfortable in the chaotic, antagonistic and non deferential world of the internet. Check out his most recent YouTube broadcast to see what I mean.
Not only was his awkward performance on film easy to mock and parody, but by preventing YouTube viewers from adding their comments to the film, Brown’s team gave the impression that he wasn’t interested in the views of the general public. For a man fighting for his political future, this wasn’t a particularly clever move and the comment from one of his team that “moderating offensive comments would be too arduous” was, quite frankly, pathetic. To use our surfing metaphor, if you are going to crowd surf, you have to go with the waves (of consumer empowerment), rather than try to make the waves accommodate your own needs.
The other major problem in using YouTube is that the viewing figures are available for all to see. Brown’s official Downing Street video has attracted 16,000 views to date, whereas material featuring Brown picking his nose or struggling to cope during Prime Minister’s Questions (invariably caputured by right-wing blogger, Guido Fawkes), attracts viewing figures in the hundreds of thousands. All this does is simply dramatise Brown’s unpopularity.