Busy Busy

I’ve had a pretty busy week as I had to do an extra day and a half at Propeller this week, in addition to my normal three days. It was all in a good cause though as we seem to be on a bit of a roll in terms of attracting new business. Hopefully, this week’s pitches and meetings will prove as successful as other recent ones although of course the extra hours take time away from working on the dissertation. It looks like next week will be similarly busy so I can assume a load of fun evenings playing catch up are on the horizon.

Anyway, I did get some marks back from the optional modules I took in semester two, at last. No complaints overall and I’m still on track for a distinction, provided I do a good job on this research. Speaking of which, a couple of completed questionnaires have landed on the doormat. I’ve also been to see Sean Saunders who heads the Methodist Circuit in Hackney. He’s getting his Ministers and some young people to take part. Gary Francis at HCVS should also have some questionnaires for me by Tuesday.

I’ve also had a call from Chris Kennedy, who’s a Councillor. He should be sending his completed questionnaire some time this week. And finally, Sally Scott from the Hackney Gazette has also sent me a completed questionnaire. Wow! A journalist has answered.

I’m kind of hoping that the weather will be as bad tomorrow as it has been today. That will give me a good excuse to start looking through the data I’ve collected so far as well as finalising a product outline for a new online PR service that I’m working on for Propeller. I’m sure Clare will love me for it.

Hydro Hackney

A good piece of PR for Hackney Council on Page 8 of tonight's londonpaper. It seems the councillors are doing their bit to go green by switching all their electricty supply to renewable sources - and saving £500,000 in the process.

Of course, what we don't know is how much electricty was being wasted and whether cutting use could still help further. But we shouldn't be too cynical so a big well done to all concerened. I would have liked to link to the full story but the press release doesn't seem to be up on the Hackney Council site yet. If it's there soon, I will.

Meanwhile, I have emailed my questionnaire to the Hackney Gazette. They seem to have been the least forthcoming people on this project so far. Like a lot of journalists I suppose they are working under coinsiderable time pressure. Then again, who isn't? I'll just have to be persistent ... again!

The Tenth Politician

A quick visit to Hackney Town Hall this morning to pick up the questionnaires left by Councillor Desmond. Luckily there was no repeat of the saga with Coucillor Siddiqui’s questionnaire of a few weeks ago so today’s collection was problem free. I’ve now got ten questionnaires filled in by Councillors which means I’m still short of my 25 per cent target but I think I will just have to work with what I’ve got (plus the answers coming from Speaker Khan)

I’ve also forwarded the youth questionnaire to Gary Francis at HCVS so we’ll see how that all goes.

The rather exciting period of sorting through all the data and adding up the results is approaching. That’s when all this will actually start to get interesting as the information I’ve collected starts to throw up some patterns of thought (or maybe not) on different stakeholders perceptions on the potential of new media as an effective channel for political communications.

Chasing

Today began with calls to Hackney Council, Hackney Police and the Hackney Gazette trying to get appointments to see various people. These all proved unsuccessful. I did get an email from Michael Desmond, a councillor, to tell me that he has left a few questionnaires for me at the Town Hall. I’ll head over there tomorrow to collect them. I’ve also been sending out a load to emails to various Hackney stakeholders including Hackney Voluntary Action, Springboard Hackney, the Methodist Circuit, Hackney TUC and a few bloggers who seem to have an interest in Hackney. Finally, I’ve also heard back from HCVS and it looks like the offer of help is now turning into practical assistance. I’ve sent them the main questionnaire and I must remember to send them the students’ questionnaire tomorrow. Anyway, overall some progress. More tomorrow hopefully.

Hackney Schools

Having not accomplished very much this week on the dissertation front (including a failed attempt to see someone at the Hackney Gazette) I finally pulled my finger out this morning and started sending requests to schools in Hackney that have a sixth form.

My aim obviously is to start getting the views of young people who will soon have their first opportunity to vote, as well as their teachers. So far, from what I can work out there are six schools which have a sixth form. These are Hackney Community College, The Bridge Academy, Cardinal Pole RC School, Our Lady’s Convent High School, Skinners’ Company’s School for Girls and Stoke Newington School. I’ve sent all of them an email, with the exception of Skinners’ whose email and website both seem to not be working at the moment, asking whether I can hand out some questionnaires.

Clearly students in sixth form are not necessarily going to represent the views of the entire age group but I their responses should give me some good insights in to where the minds of motivated and intelligent young people are on these issues.

HCVS Help

I forgot to mention the other day that Linda Smith did not ignore my correspondence but actually sent back some very useful comments which pretty much answered all of my questions regarding her thoughts on the potential of new media in political communication. I’ve also had a couple more questionnaires back from Team Hackney members and an offer of some extra help from the Hackney Council for Voluntary Service who might be able to get me in touch with more people to speak to. Obviously I’ve told them that all help is welcome so we’ll see where that leads.

Team Hackney Answers

We’ve been down in Brighton over the weekend celebrating one of my best’s mates birthday. Actually the celebrations started on Wednesday when we went to see Dave Matthews at Wembley Arena (my mate Dan’s a massive fan!). Anyway, meanwhile responses have come in from Team Hackney members Laura Sharpe and Steve Dann. At first glance they both seem to be remarkable positive about the potential of new media in political communication in particular when it comes to re-engaging young people with democracy. I still need a few more answers from politicians to make up my required sample but overall progress is being made.