Technology clearly not only provides the chisel for carving our creativity but it also seems to be increasingly carving our political decision making process. It is fascinating to read that after a concerted facebook campaign (5,654 members within a few days) Aaron Bhatnager and John banks have buckled and withdrawn the proposal to close suburban pubs at 11.00pm in Auckland. Banks announced quite pragmatically that it would have been political suicide to proceed. Surely there is a process that they should have followed before so casually rescinding the proposed policy. This is an excellent example of two way (thinking Grunig here) communication, but how symmetrical is this consultation process when the group that responded to the social media campaign were all (judging by their photos) aged between 18 and 25. Don't the rest of us get a say My Mayor?
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