Political identity on the net : David Cameron's blog

After migrating to Web 2.0, political communication has been ready to take advantage of the multiple semiotic resources of the web and the potentialities of digital genres, experimenting innovative ways of engaging citizens in politics. A blog opened in September 2006 by the Conservative leader David Cameron and recently transformed in order to adjust to changing party needs, Webcameron well exemplifies several of the strategies that inform the construction of a politician’s online identity. The site, which is regularly updated with new videos and posts, provides a behind-the scene approach to the Tory party leader’s busy life. By means of the multimodal synergy of text and image, the chosen rhetoric of representation constructs “David” as an indefatigable people’s servant, who is apparently able to appeal to the entire country on a largely consensual political agenda. However, this approach, which is mostly based on personality and single issues, obfuscates a number of actual contradictions that neither the streamlined design of the website nor Cameron’s fluent style can fully address and tackle.