MPs taught how to deal with media

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Published Aug 28, 2015

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Johannesburg - Parliament’s committee chairpersons have finished their media training aimed at improving communication skills and cautioning them of the potential pitfalls of social media, including twars (Twitter wars).

Parliament organised the week-long training as part of its strategic plan, and it marks the start of a skilling process which will eventually reach all elected public representatives of the national legislature.

House chairman Cedric Frolick said it was necessary to empower and skill committee chairpersons to ensure Parliament communicated effectively.

“The media is necessary. The message (of the training) is not to see the media as a nuisance. You are elected public representatives. The media is part of who you deal with,” said Frolick.

During the hands-on training that ended on Thursday, the committee chairpersons were told how newsrooms work, how to write articles or opinion pieces on their work, and how to conduct radio and television broadcasts.

Training is also offered on how to maximise participation in televised debates.

Frolick said the training also included social media, including how to avoid the potential pitfalls of retweets.

National Assembly MPs and delegates to the National Council of Provinces are provided with tablets, data, airtime allowances and the like.

A political tit-for-tat erupted last weekend when the DA criticised committee chairpersons being sent for “spin classes” and the ANC objected to what it called “the DA’s dishonesty and cheap propaganda”.

Due to its numerical strength in Parliament, the ANC holds all but one committee chairperson post. Themba Godi, the sole African People’s Convention MP, chairs the watchdog on public spending, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), in the tradition that this post is held by an opposition MP.

The ANC has recently boosted its communications office at Parliament, and has taken to Twitter more frequently than in the past.

However, its social media activity lags behind that of the EFF, which tweets almost word for word what its MPs say in parliamentary sittings.

The discussion documents for the ANC’s national general council also propose the establishment of a communications “clearing house” of the party’s head office and parliamentary caucus, as well as spokespersons of government and the provincial legislatures. The aim was to have the skills to counter “the onslaught” against it from, among others, opposition parties.

Political Bureau

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