Sunday, October 03, 2010

How to Gauge the Conference Atmosphere

I can guarantee that the question I will be asked most this week at the conference on the broadcast media is "what do you think the atmosphere is like?" It's a question which invites the response, "well it's better than 1985 but not quite so good at 1953". In other words it's a facile question and any journalist asking it should spend a day in the Lazy School of Journalism detention area.

If journalists really want to gauge the atmosphere from the conference, let me make a simple suggestion. Instead of spending all your time talking to other journalists, why not spend an hour wandering round talking to party members attending the conference? It might shatter a few preconceptions. Or not, as the case may be!

9 comments:

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Scary Mary said...

"detention"

tory boys never grow up said...

Sorry to rain on your party but are there any Tories out there who are worried in the slightest about this, and perhaps more importantly are they prepared to do anything about it?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/wanted-by-the-hague-genocide-and-by-william-hague-as-a-trading-partner-2094575.html

plantman said...

And perhaps a certain blog author should spend sometime in the bad spelling area!

David Boothroyd said...

Yes, it's a very silly question. Which raises the separate question of why you felt able to pronounce about the 'atmosphere' of the Labour conference based on a single day there.

Iain Dale said...

David, Quite Simple. I actually talked to conference go-ers. Most journalists just troll round the conference talking to each other and then deciding among themselves what the atmosphere is like.

Unsworth said...

"Most journalists just troll round the conference talking to each other and then deciding among themselves what the atmosphere is like."

True, and exactly as the Lobby - with the one difference that the Lobby is spoon-fed by the politicos, too.

Tapestry said...

Hence the reporting of Conservative conference 2003 being totally different to the atmosphere in the hall, when IDS spoke. The audience loved it, but the reporting went out in all directions that it was an awful speech.

I remember listening to radio reports while driving home from conference thinking that the people talking couldn't have even heard the speech, or were following some handed down version from on high, which they were being instructed to follow.

Matt said...

Perhaps they only like to talk to people they know? Fellow journos?

Perhaps they need to get out more? ;o)