Elections

At the moment there are elections in Holland. Everyday the politicians are on television and on the radio. Because I was curious if the use new media, I started a research. I found out that the are pretty conservative in the way the use internet and social media. Look at the website of PVV: http://pvv.nl/ boring!

Also the website of the PvdA is very boring. http://nu.pvda.nl/ also, no links to social media. Not smart.

I don’t understand why the political parties don’t spend more time on cool websites and social media. I think that they can win votes with a good website that is adapted to different target groups. Why don’t they create a site for older and younger people?

Especially after the things I’ve learned in the course: ‘design of business communication’ I can say that the websites have bad designs. Too much text, bad lay out. I think this is one of the reasons why the political parties have problems with reaching the youth.

Another thing I do not understand is that we still have to go to certain places to vote. Why can’t we use our Digid? That would be perfect! I think it is real old fashion to go and stand in line to vote. Don’t forget this line: within 8 years we can vote online. Trust me.

big thinking

At the moment I am following a course philosophy, pretty interesting. They teach me different aspects of philosophy and the way big thinkers, like Habermas and Darwin think. I’ve learned that a modern thinker, Jean Baudrillard says that we have lost sight on the real world. The reason for this is that we create an image of the world through the media. We live in a simulacrum, a situation in which we lost sight of the real world and look at things through the media. We believe what we see on the news, but are they true? I think that with the development of new media, the image of the world we create, will more and more be like the world as it is. Power and money play a smaller role in new media.

The entire landscape of the media is changing, mass media is changing. It is even disappearing. In the old days everybody was watching television on Saturday night. Nowadays we are skyping with our friends in America or are watching movies on YouTube. Because of the new media; mass media lost it’s power. These days the user has the power. Also, old habits are returning. For instance; 10 years ago people with a certain hobby were almost dying out. Now, with social networks etc. they can find each other. What happened to the contact advertisements in newspapers? Nobody needs them anymore. Now we use Parship or other dating websites. Every year there are many marriages that started with Parship.

Another cool new way of advertising is the collaboration with TNT. If a company has a new product, for instance Lipton Tea, they advertise on television. TNT offers them a service, they can send a promo package to customers. The tv watcher sends an sms message with zip code and house number to TNT and TNT delivers a package. Creative thinking.

Another interesting thing. Yesterday I called to Creative Technologies, for my mp3player which is broke. A guy in Singapore answered the phone call. He even spoke dutch. He helped me and sent me a new player, which will be sent from Ireland. I didn’t even had to send my old player. I can’t look inside the computers of Creative, but I think they have a good CRM system.