Alastair Campbell interview
Updated on 26 September 2009
Journalist Alastair Campbell, who was director of communications and strategy under Prime Minister Tony Blair, talks to Channel 4 News about the relationship between politics and new media.
Alastair Campbell said: "Twenty-four hour news is probably the biggest change; the advent of the web and now these new forms of social networking that are coming in and diffusing and dissipating the channels of communication.
"So what I think it means not just for politics, but for anybody in any organisation that's constantly being defined in the public eye is that in a sense getting control of message is not as straightforward as it used to be and that means clarity of message is even more important.
"So I think from the political perspective that's how I think it's got to be seen. You do have to let go a bit but in part because you have to refine and be even more disciplined in a way about the messages that you are trying to get through there.
"The big change has been the advent of the web. That is going to be here and stay here and it will develop in lots of different ways. Will Twitter still stay around? Probably - but will the next thing be slightly different, go in a slightly different direction - almost certainly.
"I think the parties should watch it, keep tabs on it and see how it develops and engage with it as these trends go but at the same time never lose sight of the basis of good old fashioned campaigning."
