Europe on the Internet
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How does the new media influence the European Union institutions? Well, just ask Margot Wallstorm, the vice-president of the European Commission who made a lot of people jealous because the popularity of her blog. Yes, the vice president of the European Union is blogging and only last years, she had 2 million visitors on her website.
People who know what the commissioner thinks now have the chance to find out directly, from her blog, just like Margot Wallstorm finds out what citizens think from the over 200 comments she gets on her posts.
People who know what the commissioner thinks now have the chance to find out directly, from her blog, just like Margot Wallstorm finds out what citizens think from the over 200 comments she gets on her posts.But this is only one little change brought to the European communication by Internet. Joe Hennon, who has recently attended the European Youth Media Days, said that "until now, the Internet was the orphan of communication of the European Comission. Now, we are putting more energy, money and resources on the Internet"
Mr. Hennon thinks that the biggest change that the Internet brings to European communication is the fact that people can freely publish their thoughts. "Internet brings a fresh view, you can see what people think" They also decided to bring their video material closer to the average Internet user: the European Commission now has its own YouTube channel. Check http://www.youtube.com/eutube to see a very nice cartoon about energy saving, that already has over 3000 views, even though the channel wasn't officially launched yet.
For another point of view, it's enough to visit the blog of a correspondent for La Liberation, a national French Paper. On Coulisses de Bruxelles you can read about European affairs in a different view. "blogs have completely change the way I do Journalism", said Jean Quatremer the author of the blog who recieves 15.000-28.000 visits a day. "The reader now gives me information that I wouldn't have known otherwise or gives me clue to research in driections that I wouldn't think about", Quatremer said. And if there are any written press journalists reading this... he has one thing to tell you: "La presse ecrite, c'est pas l'avenir!"
And, just because this is a blog and not an official magazine, let me sell you one scoop: everybody is talking about the Berlaymonster. It's an anonymus blog of scoops, gossip and critique of the European Comission. The latest entry is about Tony Blair... just compare this with what I heard the president's spokesperson saying: "The president of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso, phoned former prime minister Tony Blair and wished him and his family well".
Nope. Be sure you'll never read this on a blog.