Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Outreach #Ottawa #OttawaPlace #Media #politicians
I was reading this funny story about a Jeopardy! question that featured Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/who-is-mark-sutcliffe-ottawa-s-mayor-stumps-jeopardy-champ-9.7013496

It features a link to his X where he (manually) recorded the Answer/Question. So then I ended up on his X profile.

He has 33,000 followers.

He posted 12 minutes ago.
75 engagements - 0 likes - 0 boosts - 0 replies

1h ago
313 engagements - 0 likes - 1 boost - 1 reply

another 1h ago
354 - 3 - 1 - 0

another 1h ago
669 - 3 - 1 - 1

another 1h ago
570 - 1 - 0 - 0

2h ago
461 - 7 - 1 - 2

———
Like... what good is 33 000 followers if less than 1/3rd potentially see your post and you get nearly no real engagement?

My Theory: While Politicians think they are using X/FB because “that's where the people are”, the data shows that the "people" beyond clicking ‘follow' never actually see them or engage with that person. Instead, what the profile is actually used for is self promotion. A known place where the *media* can pick up the relevant happenings of a politician.

Which then begs the question. Would said Mayor of Ottawa be able to do exactly the same thing, and engage with the same or more constituents on ottawa.place?

Who is Mark Sutcliffe? Ottawa's mayor stumps Jeopardy! champ | CBC News

Mark Sutcliffe might be a household name in Ottawa, but when he appeared in a Jeopardy! clue Thursday evening, the reigning champion was stumped.

CBC
Dec 12 at 6:25pmWeb
Show threadJohn Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️Dec 12

@chris I don't think he's looking for 2-way engagement on a level playing field.

Politicians want public messaging to be one-directional, carefully controlled within the friendly context that friendly media properties are continually reinforcing.

Any feedback or criticism, they want that in private, where it can provide campaign intelligence unavailable to potential opponents, or simply be ignored, like any other inconvenient public consultation.

Show threadChris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸Dec 12
@johnefrancis exactly. So it effectively doesn't matter what platform they're on. It just needs to be accessible to the public (media) they want to look at it.
Show threadJohn Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️Dec 12

@chris only in the very, very earliest days of social media was a public figure or brand on the same footing as anyone else. Things quickly went badly for them, and within months there were special account types and behaviours to protect them, that normal accounts didn't get for a long time.

Some good reasons for it, open discussions easily abused by bad actors, both regular assholes and also big orgs. who have industrialized harassment.

Show threadAmgineDec 12

@chris

Assuming real human accounts are following a politician at all is probably an assumption. What if there's only 350 people, the rest are bots?

But the more likely truth is: almost no one sees the posts. "The algorithm" is weaponized, everyone knows it, M Musk brags about it.

And hates Canada.

I would guess no one in Canada has much reach other than maple magats on twatter.