Merkel podcasts, vlogs, gets a neck rub

July 24, 2006 —

Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor, is setting milestones in other areas as well: she's the first head of state to deliver her own weekly video podcast and give an interview as a video blog, or "vlog."

All this is coming from a physicist by training, who openly admits that politicians are often "very much behind" the Internet revolution.

In June, Merkel launched her weekly video podcast, coinciding with the World Cup soccer tournament in the country. If her effort is laudable, the results so far have been a bit lame.

The chancellor, hardly a TV personality, has delivered some stiff and staged podcasts on some meaty topics like health reform and changes to the federal government structure.

Apparently aware that she could be putting more Germans to sleep than waking them up, Merkel did something that -- as far as I know -- no other statesman on this planet had done before: she invited a vlogger, the German journalist Lyssa Bochert, to come for a chat to the chancellery in Berlin, directly across from the historic Reichstag, where the German parliament resides.

The purpose: to give a vlog interview and also learn more about finding her own style for video podcasts.

The interview, which can be viewed at http://watchme.xolo.tv/index.php/2006/07/21/wmx-60-vlogging-with-german-chancellor-angela-merkel/, is history in the making, not only because it appears to be the first spontaneous vlog-style chat with a head of state, but also because the chancellor appears genuinely interested in learning more about podcasting and improving her own performance.

Maybe Merkel, who had been up late the night before in tough talks on health reform, was too tired or ticked to talk with Bochert about health care as agreed. Or maybe she wasn't too certain how to field questions in a vlog format. Still, the chancellor talked, very spontaneously, about her work, daily schedule, travels and more in her private office with the vlogger, who was accompanied by a colleague holding a video camera.

OK, the interview is a bit fluffy, but when was the last time a journalist, let alone a vlogger, walked around President George W. Bush's office in the White House and asked him a string of unexpected questions?

In the vlog interview, Merkel admits that her podcasts to date have appeared staged and static. "I realized that [my podcast] comes across as artificial to the viewers when I always read from the prompter," she said in the interview. "Now I'm trying to figure out ... what viewers like so I can communicate effectively."

If Merkel finds her podcast voice, she could open ears that aren't always listening to politicians on traditional broadcast media, such as TV and radio. Video podcasts use the Internet, which is becoming the medium of choice for a growing number of people, young and old. The podcasts can be downloaded to an iPod or MP3 player or streamed to the PC.

But finding that voice will be no easy task. Political information isn't entertainment, which constitutes the bulk of data on most portable music devices and PCs in homes. If Merkel wants to attract the ears and eyes, especially of young people, she'll need to add some pizzazz to her delivery.

Maybe she could start by linking a vintage clip of George W., without a script and handlers, giving her an impromptu neck rub at the recent Group of Eight (G8) Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. The neck rub, captured by a Russian TV camera, is as wild as it gets and though it got little play on major TV media, it spread like fire on the Internet blogosphere.

If you haven't already seen the clip, check it out courtesy of YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dfrHT8o-0A. Then, for a comparison, have a peak at Merkel's German-language podcast at
http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/DE/Aktuelles/VideoPodcast/video-podcast.html.

IDG News Service