Welcome to my campaign diary, the first in a series of reflections on the
2007 campaign.
This week has shown how control over political communication in Australia is
slowly shifting away from its traditional TV and newspaper guardians. Direct
communication between politicians and constituents through the internet and
24/7 news channels is a growing challenge to the authority of Australia's media
establishment. This creates a certain amount of unpredictability around this
election campaign, but also opens up new opportunities for selling Labor's
message.
Two examples from the first week of the campaign illustrate the point. The first is the way YouTube has become a key reference point for party policy announcements as well as political criticism and satire. The Australian political establishment has come to YouTube fairly late when compared with countries such as the US and the UK, but in the last six months Labor has driven the use of online video for making policy statements. This week Labor was able to counter the government's desperate attack ads with rapid response videos highlighting Kevin Rudd's plan for the future. Labor has asked John Howard to debate Kevin Rudd on YouTube during the campaign, but we're not holding our breath.
The second example from the past week relates to the rise of the 24/7 news service Sky News. The selection of Sky's David Speers to host the sole election debate is symbolic of a broader shift from old to new media players. Sky News is important to the political class because its 24/7 operation allows politicians to prime the news cycle at a time of their choosing. The government has done this conspicuously – from government leadership speculation being fuelled by Sky news bulletins, to John Howard broadcasting live on Sky his mea culpa on indigenous affairs. Expect to see greater use of services like Sky as politicians attempt to bypass the packaging and analysis done by nightly current affairs shows and newspaper op-ed pages.
An interesting by-product of the shift from print and television to internet political communication is the creation of new markets in media filtering and analysis. A good example is the growing influence and authority of political blogs like Mumble, Oz Politics and the Poll Bludger, where opinion poll commentary is often backed with detailed statistical analysis. Such blogs have dispelled the notion that political commentary requires the platform of a big media company to be influential. It's clear from the response of some newspapers, which have ridiculed blogs at the same time as embracing the medium, that there will be ongoing tensions between the old and the new as the online commentariat grows.
Although many are calling this the first 'internet election', the point should not be overstated. The big media players still wield enormous control in deciding the terms of the debate, and many voters will decide their vote without going anywhere near YouTube or Facebook. What is apparent is that the internet is now a permanent part of the election scenery, and will only become more important as time goes on.
