* The preserve of the already-converted

Iain Dale, the man behind "anti-establishment political TV station" 18 Doughty Street, came to talk to us today. He was keen to demonstrate the genre-busting ingenuity of his current online adventure, but although new media might have the capacity to "reach parts of the electorate no-one else can", how many first-time voters are going to log on to watch four hours of unrestrained right-wing invective?

Mr Dale revels in the potential for unregulated polemical meandering that internet television represents. He concluded his session by lauding the fact that online TV empowers everyone – from jam-makers to the BNP – to broadcast their views without fear of censorship and editorialising. But is this a good thing?

Online TV can be unashamedly audience-specific, but its practitioners should bear in mind that successful journalism requires a certain amount of skill. All media output needs to be disciplined and imaginatively crafted if it is to hold the attention of an increasingly apathetic audience. As Vin Ray, the BBC's TV News guru, comments in The Television News Handbook: "… there is now a greater need than ever before for trusted, good journalists to select the most significant stories and explain why they matter in a way our citizens enjoy and understand." [1]

I feel sure that people will quickly lose patience with the boundless and shapeless pontificating of online television, and marathon Tory talking shops and endless discussions about jam will only reach out to new areas of society if made palatable to the ‘average’ viewer in the same way that conventional broadcast media is.

[1] Vin Ray, The Television News Handbook, Macmillan, 2003