Something you don't see everyday is a politician "live tweeting" (by themselves) from the floor of a legislative session to keep constituents apprised of up-to-the-minute happenings. Something you never see is a politician leading a session at an interactive conference about reporting government and politics through social media.
Meet David Bobzien (@davidbobzien), the Nevada State Assemblymember who was front and center leading a discussion of how social media is shaping politics and political reporting at last weekend's Nevada Interactive Media Summit.
In a session entitled "Twits and Tweets: Covering Nevada Government and Politics in the Social Media Age," Bobzien, joined by the Reno Gazette Journal's Anjeanette Damon (@INP) and the Las Vegas Sun's David Schwartz (@schwartznews), discussed the transformation that Twitter has had on his own communication with constituents as well as the political reporting coming out of Carson City during the recent six-day legislative special session that took place between February 23 and March 1, 2010.
Whether from a journalist's perspective of reporting the news accurately and effectively or a politician's perspective of engaging constituents, Bobzien hit on the goal of using social media in politics: "Get people bought into the process."
As a politician, it refreshing that Bobzien begs the question that many of us are left wondering: why aren't more legislators and elected officials using social media? Many politicians' reluctance to personally engage in Twitter or other social media comes from a fear of the unknown or a lack of familiarity with the technology. Even today, it is still viewed as something that is "time consuming" and politicians, paranoid beings by nature, remain consumed by visions of tweets being used in future attack ads dancing in their heads.
Contrary to these perceptions, Bobzien noted that he finds the flow of the legislative session to be conducive to tools like Twitter, allowing legislators and journalists alike to have moments to share information with followers. Nevada's recent special session served as an experiment for such.
As in most Government 2.0-related discussions, authenticity and transparency emerged as the important themes. Politicians should avoid the dreaded "auto-tweet," looked down upon with disdain generally in the Twittersphere. Bobzien pointed out that it is really obvious when three legislators tweet at the exact same time, "I am walking in my district."
What happens in Nevada shouldn't stay in Nevada. Other states, such as California, have excellent reporters on the Capitol beat who keep followers in the know with legislative happenings, but we have yet to see many representatives embrace Twitter in the conversational manner that legislators like David Bobzien have.
During the presentation in a moment of being program-less, a tweet out to the other attendees revealed who David Bobzien was: "@beccawik: @gagnier - he's @davidbobzien and he's rad."
Pretty much.