*Cathal Crowe. Photograph: Joe Buckley
SOCIAL MEDIA has become a vital component in canvassing with the public, Clare TD Cathal Crowe (FF) has said.
With each passing Dáil term, the use of social media by politicians has grown. In 2010, then a member of the opposition, Simon Coveney TD (FG) tweeted that the then Taoiseach, Brian Cowan (FF) “sounded half way between drunk and hungover” during an interview with Morning Ireland.
Typical tweets from TDs are not as controversial but the failure of any political member not to have an active persona online is certainly noticeable among the electorate.
Arguably the most active of Clare’s current crop of politicians is Deputy Crowe. “I always tried to have a good social media presence. I’m a millennial, I was born in 1982 and became an adult in 2000, social media was part of my early adult life and to connect with friends, I used it as early as I could to connect with constituents which is really important.
“With the greatest respect to The Clare Echo, The Clare Champion, Clare FM and national media outlets, they have an editorial license but on social media you are reporter, editor, everything, I find it a great way to communicate with constituents and give them a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, the response to that is good,” he added.
Crowe believed the public have their mind made up on who to vote for based on what they see online. “Social media is a form of canvassing in itself, I’ve noticed a lot of times over the last few elections when you get to someone’s door they have their mind already made up before they’ve met someone, they’re either voting for you or for somebody else and they’ve decided based on what they’ve seen and heard in media and on social media, I think it’s a massively important tool. Most politicians at this stage have grasped it too”.
Although his office team includes former Clare FM news reporter James Mulhall, Crowe admitted that he is responsible for all output on his pages. “With my office team, I try to look after my own social media, most of it is my own posting which is unique among politicians, I try to keep control of it, I enjoy posting social media and I enjoy interacting with comments underneath, the only downside I suppose is that it makes you available 24/7.
“I’d speak with colleagues like Willie O’Dea who would tell me that at a certain point in the evening, the phone was turned off and you had a bit of escapism, a little bit of downtime, you’d hear that from the likes of Willie O’Dea and Sean Haughey who are years in the Dáil, I find that it is 24/7, I often reply to people at midnight or if I wake up in the middle of the night, I would reply to someone, it feeds into the whole politician on demand thing which I do like but there’s times when it can wear you down a bit”.
Such a level of engagement where an elected representative is engaging on issues in the middle of the night is hardly sustainable. “It used to happen naturally because I had such small kids that I would be up in the middle of the night tending to them but it is hard to keep up. These days I find constituents demand a quick turnaround on their issues. When I’m on the early morning train to Dublin, it could be 6:30 or 7am, I would reply to emails that have come in at 10pm or 11pm the night before, it’s important to rapidly turn things around, you’re only as good as your last trick in politics. I’m trying to make a mark as someone who works the ground in the county, I’m the only one who does countywide clinics, I pride myself as one of the quickest people in responding to issues, I think all of that matters a huge amount in relation to constituents in this day”.
Giving an insight into the life of a politician is important, the Meelick native said. “I’ve heard people in the past criticise politicians for saying ‘you only spoke once in the Dáil this week and you only voted twice’, for some people it is very two dimensional they gauge you on what you say in a few minutes in the Dáil Chamber, that is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the political work, I try if I’m at the other end of the county to let people know what I’m doing, if I’m coming out of the Dáil at midnight I will let people know what I’m doing, I like the whole control that social media gives”.
Crowe continued, “When we engage with newspapers or radio stations, we’re at the mercy of their editorial licence which I respect but on social media you’re in command of the situation, sometimes posts on social media would exceed newspaper circulation if you get a particularly high post. The one part of social media I don’t like so much is Twitter, I’m not very prolific on Twitter, I find that mostly you draw a lot of flak from people who are anonymous, I find Facebook and Instagram great in particular”.
It is then put to the TD that social media allows him to put a spin on narratives, a controlling aspect that politicians do not have in a typical interview with members of the media. “It’s my version of what I’m doing. It’s like putting a newsletter around the county, it’s a great way to communicate”.
