As Israeli obviously failed to heed the lessons of 2006 and the importance of a) shaping perceptions and b) countering adversarial information, they are exploring grassroots engagement in the struggle for minds in the current Gaza campaign:
Between 1-3 pm (EST) Tuesday, the Consulate General of Israel in New York will hold a live Citizen "Press" Conference on Twitter in order to directly answer the public’s questions regarding the current situation in Israel and Gaza in wake of the IDF’s operation in the Strip. …
Twitter users can take part in the Citizen "Press" Conference by going to: http://www.twitter.com/IsraelConsulate and directing their messages to @israelconsulate and including the tag #AskIsrael.
At <140 characters per exchange, how effective will this be?
See also:
Darren, I agree. I spoke with a colleague and it was decided that they might have been better off using a blog, and leveraging Twitter to push people to the blog posts.My sense is that the rushed, tense, short replies leave them on the defensive.
Probably the best way to look at this is using Tweetree which provides a very rough guide to the conversation by including the original questions.See: http://tweetree.com/israelconsulate
So far, it looks rather stilted. I think they would have been better off using something that didn’t limit the response to 140 characters (though I suppose it also keeps the questions and answers from running on too much). I’m not convinced that Twitter is the right format for something like this.
Twitter works fine @ 140 chr$ because there’s no limit on the number of messages on can send serially, but for REAL texting subversion, TxtMob, whose creator was subpoenaed in re ‘flashmobs’ at the 2004 Republican National Convention.