Widening Net

A couple of developments so far today. I’ve started to widen the net of my research by contacting Jane Young who edits Hackney Today. As the paper is the Council’s newsletter it certainly doesn’t fit in to the category of independent media. However, the team that work on the paper are very much involved in political communication in the Borough and so I’m sure their opinions on how new media can affect this will provide some interesting results. Anyway, Jane and I had a brief conversation on the phone and I have now sent her the questionnaire.

On the Councillors front, I have received another completed questionnaire from Sem Moema. I shall have to start looking at how I’m going to analyse and collate the data but that will be for another day. Despite the lovely weather, I have to get on with working on the EiA newsletter so dissertations will have to take a back seat.

PS

Just a couple of quick post scripts to mention the fact that I had a really lovely weekend up in Norfolk. True relaxation! Going round Norwich obviousLy brought back memories of university days. I was really pleased to see how much the place has improved over the last decade (not that there was much wrong with it before). The only negative thing was sitting through that mind numbingly dull FA Cup Final. And finally ... I have got my new specs!!

More Feedback

I had an early start this morning to make my 9.00am appointment with Councillor Khan. We had a really good chat in which he brought up a few interesting points particularly about the responsibility older people have in terms of the contribution they can make to encouraging a sense of collective responsibility and political participation among the general population.

He argued that they have both the time and the experience to be engaged in the community and if they did this, it would set a great example for others to follow. He also talked about a few communications ideas which he had implemented in his previous roles with the Council to generate more involvement.

Today’s meeting was just a preliminary chat and we’ll be meeting again to get in to the finer details of the project. As the Speaker of Hackney council, he’s really keen to support this project, even in terms of contacts with other stakeholders. That is absolutely fantastic news.

Beyond that, I finally picked up the questionnaire filled in by Councillor Siddiqui and also received another completed questionnaire from Councillor Christine Boyd. It turns out Luke Akehurst has emailed a copy to all the Labour councillors so hopefully there will be a few more responses on their way soon. We are getting closer to the magic 25 per cent so I’m feeling pretty optimistic at the moment.