Candidates and New Media

I mentioned yesterday that Katjana Ballantyne 'blocks' me on Twitter which I take a sign that she struggles with listening to those who say things that she finds unpleasant (it's also a little silly because I CAN still read her Tweets).

Can we learn anything about the candidate from the people & organizations that she listens to ('Follows' in Twitter-speak)?

Who Katjana Ballantyne follows

Hmm, Ballantyne doesn't follow anyone. How is she going to represent the citizens of Ward 7 if she doesn't listen to them and to others who may have something to say about the issues?

Who Joan Puglia Follows

Puglia follows a mix of politicians, media sources, arts groups, community activists etc. It's good to know that Puglia is paying attention to the diverse constituencies that make up our ward and Somerville in general.

For comparison, let's include Ward 4 candidate Christine Barber
Who Christine Barber follows

Well, it looks like Barber pays attention to the same type of information as Puglia.

Now, I'm not such a 'New Media' junkie as to believe that it is the one true path to knowledge and understanding. However, in the spring when Puglia and Ballantyne announced their candidacies and setup their web-sites and twitter-feeds I thought Ward 7 might benefit from an increase in information from them. So far, I've seen web-site updates from Puglia and none from Ballantyne and as mentioned above it seems that Puglia, alone, is using Twitter to listen and to share her positions.