SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -
Calling your Congressman in the computer age can revive the old telecommunicationsconundrum of a party line.
Because you never know who else might be in on the conversation.
"In essence,'' said Congressman Jack Kingston, "every member of Congress and every staffer has a blackberry in their pocket.''
And they all can use them to not only access their boss's social media sites, but also reply on the representative's behalf.
While elected officials say they closely monitor their own Twitter and Facebook accounts, they don't always have time to answer every question or request.
"I have both a political campaign website as well as an official Senate website,'' said Senator Johnny Isakson. "I have tremendous help because I am electronically challenged on some of these products.''
"I have a high degree of trust in them,'' Kingston said of the staffers who help monitor his website, "and they have a high degree of flexibility on what they say on my behalf.''
But handing over limited control of their sites does not limit their responsibility for what appears on them, no matter how much representatives might wish that it would.
"We have Twitter, we have Facebook, we have all that stuff,'' said Congressman John Barrow. "But I don't personally input any of that stuff. I say that so I'll have plausible deniability. If anything shows up that looks like it came from me, it actually came from somebody on my staff.''
Still, the benefits of being in touch and in tune with constituents outweigh any political risks of social media.
"It's made communications affordable,'' said Isakson. "It's made it quick and it's made it easy. So, you can engage with the people you represent.''
"I would say,'' added Kingston, "That the candidate who is not very committed to social media in not going to win in today's races.''
Copyright 2012 WTOC. All rights reserved.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WTOC, a Raycom Media Station.
