Social media and the Greek elections 2009

Greek elections 2007, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

It should be interesting to see what, if any impact social media will have on the coming national elections here in Greece. Of course the decision to call elections at such short notice has caught many on the hop but I shall be keeping an eye out for what is happening on the Greek language blogosphere and other outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

I think there is the dawning realisation that the internet will become more important in the future as far as getting the message out to voters is concerned but still the kind of web based electioneering we saw in the last US presidential campaign is still far off. Use of the internet remain low and those in charge of the political parties' campaigns continue to put their faith in more traditional media channels such as TV, radio and newspapers, which will get the lion's share of the millions that are going to be spent in the next three weeks.

On the other hand all parties have got a significant presence on the internet and are slowly starting to exploit platforms such as blogs, though these still tend to be just places to display material produced for other sources. I don't see much evidence of grass roots use of such tools to get voters out or co-ordinate activism.

I shall be following events with my camera as the various parties roll through Thessaloniki and give press conferences and organise rallies.