TORONTO—The internet is becoming a big player in Canadian political life and its role will only grow in the future.

However, while the use of this technology has increased the involvement of individuals in the debate, official organizations seem to have some difficulties in promoting their message through this technology.

There is no doubt that people are losing interest in conventional media and are exploring other means of communications not just to stay informed, but also to get directly involved.

This is good for democracy but at the same time, there is a huge danger.

Seeing as how information dissemination has become so easy, a lot of information might reach millions of people unfiltered. While this provides a great opportunity for the truth to reach millions, we may also be flooded by faulty, incomplete and outright wrong information, as well as malicious attack and some plain lies.

This will clog the system making it hard to see the difference between truth and lies and justified and unjustified accusations. Essentially, without the filter of editors, producers, and responsible journalists, what exists now is a jungle of bloggers. There is no doubt that the internet has and will continue to let the truth reach people, the problem is that we no longer know what's true and what's not.

Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella, who will run the party's war room in the next election campaign and is considered one of the best media advisers in the political field, said that because of competition bloggers try "to be more aggressive in order to stand out from the internet pack."

Kinsella also said he believes that "unlike the mainstream media, the vast majority of internet producers are one-person operations with no editorial oversight, no management control. So stuff gets put on internet by these people often before they have an opportunity to think it through, if it is factually correct, fair or politically counterproductive."

There is another element Kinsella said he thinks is playing a big role: "Most of the people hate the mainstream media and truly believe that there is, in most of cases, a left-wing conspiracy and these people have created their own media."

I don't know how many hits websites of the major political organizations have every day. Given the ease with which people can access them, I hope there are millions. Otherwise I think they should take them down and completely refocus their aim. The only time we hear about them is when they show controversial items that systematically create problems for the image of their own political organization.

The events of last week with the stupid game on the Liberals' website of Prime Minister Stephen Harper superimposed on Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being shot and the confusing "paper bullet" on the Conservatives' website with the pictures of Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion prove the case. And, of course, who can forget puffin-gate?

These party websites are a major source for their opponents to play "gotcha" politics with their rivals.

Most of the time, these internet presentations are in the hands of very creative and aggressive young people eager to impress their bosses. Moreover, it seems that quite often there is no adult supervision before changes are made.

Let's face it. If a political party has a good issue it can use it to embarrass their opponent. Conventional media are used to promoting it because a wider audience will be almost immediately on hand. In fact, any idea promoted through the internet will only get attention when conventional media pick it up. Unfortunately for these aggressive young attention-seeking party operatives, when they get the attention they sought, it's usually not going to be pleasant for them or their party.

I believe that the internet should continue to be used and in the future will play a more important role. There is no doubt that many people are interested in how to get in touch with their political representatives, to get information on how to be involved during the campaign and get more information about specific policies.

Also it is a good place to show pictures of the leader and other party members while making them available to everybody, including the media. There are hundreds of small newspapers that cannot afford to have a photographer following the leader or events related to one of the national parties and they would be happy to get them from their national websites.

Using the new medium might be fun for individuals who have nothing to lose if they make mistakes. For political parties, it would be wiser to have more professional control over the content, or stick to a positive message.

It might sound boring, but voters want to get rid of the negative stuff that has characterized so much of the political debate in the last decade and start seriously talking about issues. If nothing else, there should be more "adult" and professional supervision on the political parties' websites. Until they master the medium, it might be wise to use the internet only to promote their messages rather than to attack their opponents.

Angelo Persichilli is political editor of Corriere Canadese, Canada's Italian-language daily newspaper based in Toronto.

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